


Running Down a Dream - The B-sides

by tenshinokorin



Series: Running Down a Dream - (Main Story & B-sides) [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, all inter-chocobro pairings possible, all pecan logs with no kingslayings, just make sure you stop at the roadside adult superstore along the way, no spoiler comments please, no unsolicted concrit please, running down a dream, traveling with your friends gives your life meaning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-26 02:48:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9858587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenshinokorin/pseuds/tenshinokorin
Summary: Once upon a time, a young king went on a journey with three friends, and... wait, have you heard this one before? Here's everything that can't go in the mainRunning Down a Dreamfic without breaking the teen rating (or at least the timeline). If RDD is the fun road trip pit stop at the Stuckeys for pecan logs and trashy t-shirts, this one is for the blowjobs in the mens room.My playthough's about to hit 130 hours....There are alotof blowjobs.





	1. Poolside

The hotel in Lestallum had seen better days, as had the city itself, and that observation extended to the hotel pool on the roof. The blue tile was chipped and faded, the concrete was stained with exposure, and the plastic strapping sagged on the poolside chairs. None of that mattered to Iris Amicitia for two reasons: one, that she was having the time of her life, and two, because she couldn't see it. 

She stood in the middle of the swimming pool in water up to her chest, her arms outstretched, one of Prompto's spare bandannas tied over her eyes in a makeshift blindfold, and a look of intent concentration on her face.

" _Kweh_ ," she said. 

" _Kupo_ ," came the answer from all around her, and Iris lunged. Someone nimble and swift evaded her grasp with a gasp of laughter--Prompto, Iris thought, as her fingers closed on nothing but his wake. "Aw, dammit!" 

"Now now," Ignis said, somewhere behind her. "Language, Miss Amicitia. There are children present." 

"Ahah! Iris said a _bad word_." Talcott's voice came from much higher up than usual; he was too small to play at the same depth as the rest of them and Noct had him on his shoulders. 

"Ooooh," Iris said, and tilted her head first this way and that to try and gauge the distance, smacking the top of the water in irritation. "I am _so_ gonna get you guys." 

"Not likely at the rate you're going," Gladio said, and then surged easily out of Iris' reach before she could catch him. "Phew. I'm just glad Iggy's not It anymore." 

"I know, right?" Noct bobbed slowly away from Iris, not able to move any faster with Talcott hanging on to his slippery shoulders. "I think he was cheating." 

"I think you're all underestimating my keen--ah! Not so fast, Iris!" Ignis sidled out of her reach with inches to spare, and resumed his lecture. "As I was saying, I've worn glasses my whole life, I know how to get around with my vision compromised---Prompto, you're going to get caught." 

"A- _ha!_ " Iris shouted, and spun around to grab Prompto, who had been lurking right behind her unnoticed like some kind of menacing grouper. He was too close to get away as Iris latched onto him and didn't let go. "Got you! Now you have to be the Chocobo!" 

"Igggniiisss!" Prompto wailed, as Iris took off her blindfold and smacked Prompto with it, "You traitor!" 

"Hey, Prompto," Noct laughed, letting Talcott down so Ignis could have a turn carrying him, "Haven't you ever read any history? Betrayal from within is how most regimes fall, you know?" 

"I knew it," Prompto said, tossing back his wet bangs and putting his bandanna around his face. "It's always some backstabbing bastard you trusted." 

"Ooooooh," Talcott said, eyes wide. "That's a _really_ bad one!" 

Prompto winced under his bandanna. "Ahh, sorry, T-cott. It totally is. My bad." 

Ignis clicked his tongue. "Prompto, _honestly_." 

"I don't know if us moogles are gonna put up with such a potty-mouth chocobo," Gladio said, sloshing ominously in Prompto's direction. "Are we, Talcott?" 

"No!" Talcott cheered. "Go get him!" 

"Gladioooo," Prompto said, lifting up one corner of his bandanna and then putting it back down when he realized how close Gladio was to him, and backpedaling rapidly through the water. "You keep away from me!" 

"Hey, I thought you were supposed to find us," Gladio said, without slowing down. "I'm making it easy for you. Kupo." 

"Ahahaha no you aren't let me go augh Gladio put me down somebody help-- _kweh_!" Prompto's shout ended on a gurgle as Gladio picked him bodily up out of the water and then dropped him back in again like a cannonball, sending a massive splash up into the air and over everyone else. Prompto surfaced with his blindfold down around his neck and his swim trunks barely held on with one hand, and he lit into Gladio with a wet bandanna and a string of profanity that ruined any hope of preserving Talcott's innocent vocabulary. 

"Needs another rinse," Gladio said, and ducked him under again. 

The entire game fell apart after that, because everyone was laughing too hard to keep playing and it was clear that--whatever the rules were--that Prompto had lost and Gladio had won. Also, it was well past Talcott's bedtime, as Ignis reminded them all. 

"You guys go ahead," Prompto said, kicking off from the pool wall and into a lazy backstroke. "I'm gonna do a few laps till I get tired." 

"I'm not tired either," Talcott insisted. 

"I know you aren't," Ignis said, gently toweling the boy's hair. "But we all must do our duties. Speaking of, Noct, are you coming?" 

"Ahh, I think I'll hang out a little bit too," Noct said, his arms folded on the edge of the pool, chin on his hands as he peered past the rooftop lights of the city and into the dark sky beyond. "Not feeling really sleepy." 

Ignis arched a knowing eyebrow at him, but said only, "Very well." 

"If you're staying out here, Noct," Gladio began, "Maybe I should--" 

"Gladio," Ignis said, with a tiny cough, "I highly doubt any Daemons are going to dive-bomb the lido in your absence. Besides, you should see your sister to her room." 

"I'm fine," Iris said, wringing out her hair with a towel. "Gladdy, if you want to stay--" 

"I _insist_ , my dear," Ignis said, and gave Gladio a look that could have cracked the Regalia's front fender. "It's the proper thing to do, as I'm sure Gladio knows." 

" _Oh_ ," Gladio said, finally picking up on Ignis' meaning. "Got it. Yeah. C'mon, Iris, I'm with these morons all the time, let me have a break! How about I go over to the market and get us avocado smoothies as a midnight snack?" 

"Can I have one?" Talcott wanted to know. "Plleeease, Ignis? I'll promise I'll go to bed right after?" 

"Where have I heard that before?" Ignis said, and smiled over his shoulder at Noct as he closed the pool-area door behind them. There was a not-subtle click as the door was locked, and someone very kindly shut off most of the overhead floodlights. The rooftop was left in the soft, borrowed glow of Lestallum's city lights. Without the harsh illumination, the battered pool took on almost a mystical glow, and all the old scars of time and use faded away.

"He's never heard that before," Noct said, once they were alone. "He never had any trouble getting me to go to bed." 

"I've had plenty of trouble getting you into bed," Prompto answered, easing up alongside Noct with a knowing smile. "As a matter of fact I still haven't managed to get you in an actual _bed_." 

Noctis raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, I wonder why that is? Maybe because Ignis and Gladio are always sleeping like five feet away?" 

Prompto moved in a little closer. "I can be quiet," he said.

"Prove it," Noct dared him. 

Prompto did. For a long moment there was no sound except the quiet slosh of the pool filter, and the omnipresent hum of the Exineris plant that went unnoticed in the daytime. It was Noct that made a noise first, a low, hungry sound into Prompto's open mouth on his own. He slid his hands through the water to wrap around Prompto's waist and draw their bodies together, until the leg Prompto was using to tread water slipped easily between Noct's thighs and pressed firmly up against him. Noct tossed his head with a soft hiss at the pressure, and Prompto's laugh was dark against his bared throat.

"Now I know why you didn't get out of the pool."

"Shutup, it's your fault." Noct groaned as Prompto pushed them both against the pool wall, rocking his hip slowly against the hard curve of Noct's cock. "Kept grabbing me during the game, always about to lose those stupid chocobo-print shorts of yours--"

"If you don't like them," Prompto said, teeth closing on Noct's earlobe, his hands wandering everywhere they weren't allowed to go in daylight, "why don't you get rid of them?"

"Don't tell me what to do," Noct said, and then took two handfuls of the loose fabric of Prompto's swim trunks, and yanked them off.

"Wow," Prompto laughed, as his shorts floated off towards the deep end of the pool, leaving him in nothing but his soggy leather bracelet. "You sure showed me, Noct."

Noct pushed off the wall with a dangerous grin. "Not all I'm gonna show you," he said, and dove.

Prompto made a wild grab for the side of the pool, but even then he wasn't fully prepared. Not for the swift kisses Noct brushed against his belly and certainly not for what he did after. Prompto let out a soft cry of pleasure that nobody else heard as Noct's mouth opened and then closed around him, so much hotter than the pool water, and somehow wetter as well.

"Noct," Prompto breathed, to nothing but the stars above, as the king of Lucis sucked his cock down below the flashing surface of the swimming pool.

It couldn't last, because even the heir of house Caelum needed to breathe once in a while, and Prompto sagged back against the faded blue tile with his face flushed and his ribs heaving as Noct surfaced. Prompto felt like he was the one that had been underwater.

"Little too deep over here for this," Noct said, blinking pool-water from his eyelashes. "Get over to the steps."

Noct's rank had a way of showing at odd times, like how he never bothered to say please except when he wanted to, and went places with the expectation that he would be followed. A king had no call to look over his shoulder. But in this case, the note of authority gave Prompto a strange thrill, and he shivered in spite of the muggy night air as he swam in his king's wake. 

"Do you think there's security cameras up here?" Prompto kept the water up to his shoulders, just in case. 

In answer, Noct stripped out of his own trunks, tossing them in the general direction of his pool chair. "Do you think we'd be doing this if there were? This isn't Insomnia, you know." 

"Yeah, I know." Prompto scooted back onto the wide pool steps, legs still in the water. It didn't even feel like Lestallum, to be honest. Far above the streets, the perpetual stink of uncollected trash and grilling meat dissipated entirely, and the noise and lights faded away. The stars were reflected on the surface of the swimming pool, and they shone in the drops of water that Noct tossed out of his bangs. Moonlight gleamed on his wet skin as he slid up and over Prompto and kissed him, sweet iced tea and chlorine on his lips. 

Prompto sank back into the water with a gasp as Noct's mouth moved down, his legs floating easily over Noct's shoulders. Noct lifted him up like he weighed nothing at all, raising Prompto out of the water until the aching curve of his cock broke the surface. If there were any prying cameras, there was now nothing they hadn't seen, but Prompto couldn't manage to care. Not as Noct pressed an ardent kiss to the flushed tip of Prompto's cock before drawing him in, cradling Prompto against his tongue, his hungry little growl sending a ripple of sensation right down to Prompto's fingertips and the arches of his feet. Prompto scrambled to get a grip on the stair rail, before losing his grip on everything else. 

It wasn't like Insomnia at all. 

Noct had done this the first time on a hotel rooftop in the middle of the night, when they'd surprised each other with their own eagerness and daring. It was then, and every time after, almost more than Prompto could get his brain around. Noct was greedy with his mouth and his hands, a king from a long line of kings, and Prompto floated trustingly in his hands and denied him nothing. Noct bowed his head and made it a command by doing so; and Prompto, with Noct's name a rising moan in his throat, obeyed.

"I thought you said you could be quiet," Noct laughed, pulling Prompto towards him for another kiss. Prompto tasted his own come on Noct's tongue, and he was not shy about how much he liked it. He buried his hands in Noct's wet hair, tangling their legs together and sinking them both against the steps. Noct was hard and insistent against Prompto's belly, and he fully resolved to do something about that. 

"I _can_ be," Prompto said, fingers trailing down Noct's flat stomach, "not that I _want_ to be." 

"I sure as hell don't want to be," Noct said, and put Prompto's hand where he wanted it. 

"Impatient, your highness?" Prompto kissed a drop of water off Noct's nose, as a cute counterbalance to the fact that he was fisting his cock under the water. Prompto wondered how long he could hold his breath, and then, as Noct arched up and groaned with need, Prompto wondered something else entirely. 

"Hey. You wanna..." Prompto let the offer hang unspoken, but even as half of a suggestion, its full impact was plain. Prompto had Noct's cock in his hand; and his involuntary reaction to Prompto's suggestion was both telling and flattering. Prompto thought he heard a hard-won note of caution in Noct's voice, even as Noct's pulse thudded against his palm. 

"You want to?"

"I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't," Prompto said, but he felt like a herd of startled garrulas had been let loose in his stomach. "I mean if you don't want to, that's--" 

"Of course I _want_ to." Noct scowled, but it was one of deep thought. "But can we? I haven't--" 

"Oh," Prompto said, and while the garrulas were still there in his stomach, they all sat down at once and left Prompto feeling acute disappointment instead of nervousness. What he was suggesting was more complicated than a furiously-quick jerking off in the tent before Ignis finished breakfast or a double blowjob behind a motel sign; neither of them were prepared for it. At least, Prompto didn't think they were. 

"Wait a second," Noct said, and surged up out of the water, showering Prompto with a small rainstorm in the process. He yanked his jacket off the chair and patted down all the pockets, and returned triumphantly with a strip of wrapped condoms in his teeth. 

The garrulas started running around again in Prompto's stomach, and he boggled at Noct's find. "Where did you even get those?"

Noct separated one packet from the rest, doing his level best to pretend he'd done it before and in fact did it all the time and it was absolutely not a big deal, but he didn't fool either of them. "They're in every mini-mart, Prompto."

Prompto was not convinced. "In black iridescent latex?"

Noctis snorted. "Okay, no. Gladio gave them to me when we left. I think it was meant as a joke, for the wedding." Noct put the extras down on the edge of the pool, and tried to hide his shaking hands. "I tried to tell him that the entire _point_ of a royal wedding is _not_ to use birth control, he tried to tell me that it's just Crownsguard standard equipment for carrying water and sealing off wounds and stuff, I pointed out that they were lubed and wondered if there's really that much action going on in the Crownsguard, he told me to ask Cor about it, and I told him to fuck off. And then he said at least I should fuck off safely. Asshole." 

Prompto's voice was very uneven. "I'm sorry, all I heard of that is something about fucking and assholes and that's what we're trying to do here so maybe let's do that before my brain catches up with me and I flip out and spend the rest of the night in the fetal position by the 5' marker." 

Noct eyed him through his drippy bangs. "Are you telling me that _I'm_ talking too much?" 

"Yes," Prompto said, and kissed him. He tried to pull Noct back over him, as they'd been before, but Noct shook his head in a gentle no. Prompto broke the kiss to ask what was wrong, but before he got a word out the world spun around him. It ended with Noct on his back on the pool steps and only barely in the water, cock in his hand, eyes reflecting the pool-light back up at Prompto and the sky beyond. He was all onyx and sapphire--rich and rare and impossibly beautiful--and Prompto's mouth went dry with longing.

"Like this," Noct said. "It'll be easier. For you. I think."

Prompto nodded, and then tried to figure out how to swallow and breathe and do all the things that normally his body did on its own without having to be told. Noct fumbled with the condom wrapper with his wet fingers and finally gave up and tore it open with his teeth. 

"Please tell me you don't have your camera with you," Noct said, and bit his lip as he got it on, Prompto's fingers getting mixed up with his own on the slippery latex as he helped. 

"What, you don't want to save this moment for posterity?" 

Noct dragged one freckled leg over his thighs. "No, I just don't think I could last long enough for you to frame the shot. Are you--?" Noct's breath hit hard against his teeth as Prompto straddled him, hands braced on the step above Noct's head. 

"Ready?" Prompto asked, teeth bared in a grin as he felt Noct nudge up against him, hot and slick and insistent. "Maybe."

"No. I was asking..." Noct lifted a hand out of the water and put it to Prompto's face. "Are you sure?"

Prompto tilted his head and kissed Noct's open palm. "Absolutely," he said, and slowly sank down into Noct's lap. 

He'd thought about it before, of course. Thought about it years ago, wondered how it would feel, told himself he was being an idiot even as he got off all over himself and wound up late for class. But no fantasy had ever prepared him for this. For Noct underneath him, his hair floating like a halo in the water and the whole night sky reflected all around him, his face open and unguarded with pleasure as Prompto took him in. No curious fingertip compared to the whole aching weight of Noct pushing inside him, burning and inescapable, forcing Prompto's body to accept the invasion with no terms for his surrender. Prompto made a noise--he could not help but do so--and Noct took a shuddering breath and froze instantly. 

"It's too much-- Prompto. I'm sorry, I'll--" 

"Don't you _dare_ ," Prompto breathed, and ground his hips down for more of it, greedy and shameless, until he felt the soft heat of Noct's balls against him and knew he had everything Noct could give. "Don't you dare try to stop now, oh god Noct it's so good--" The pool water sloshed violently around the steps as Prompto rode him, arched back and utterly possessed, obviously wanted, filled in more ways than one. 

Noct struggled to get words out as his hips snapped up to meet Prompto's cadence, his fingers bruising-hard on Prompto's pale hipbones. "Prompto. I'm not gonna last--" 

For answer, Prompto fell down over him and rolled them both over, until Noct was above him and dripping water all over Prompto's upturned face. "Don't last," he breathed, lifting himself up for it, hands on his own cock. He didn't know how long he'd been hard, but he knew he was ready, that Noct would take him there. "Just fuck me. Noct."

Noct did not need any further urging, slamming them both together with the same ruthlessness as his battle-fury, when all the arms of his ancestors spun around him and nothing dared stand in his way. He took what he wanted, like a conqueror. Like a king. 

Noct made a sound above him as the edges of Prompto's vision went dark, his body tightening like a fist as Noct drove him to the edge and then over it. Prompto had no word but Noct's name and he said it over and over as Noct shuddered inside him, bending down to kiss him as his body answered Prompto's, and they came together like the tide rising to the inexorable pull of the moon. 

When it was over they slid down into the water together, still intertwined as they floated against the steps, waiting for their blood and breathing to slow back down to normal. It was several minutes before either of them spoke, neither of them quite sure what to say, unwilling to let the moment go. 

"Prompto," Noct said, finally. 

"Hmm?" 

"Was it... did you like it?" 

Prompto eased back to give him an incredulous look. "Do you have to ask?" 

"No, it's just--" Noct had trouble meeting Prompto's eyes all of a sudden. "Next time, we'll trade," he said, and then took a sudden interest in the sky overhead, as though he casually invited people to fuck him all the time. 

Prompto felt the blood rush to his face as his brain caught up with him, playing scenarios both recent and hypothetical. He had a vivid image of Noct underneath him, legs spread, begging him for it--and felt a wave of vertigo as all the blood that had gone to his face made a sharp u-turn and went right to his groin instead. Prompto shivered all over, while his sated cock throbbed dully in anticipation. "Deal," Prompto said, and his fingers did a little reconnaissance for the future engagement, but it only made Noct laugh and wiggle out of his grip with a splash. 

"Not _now_ , Prompto! Sweet Six. We won't be able to walk in the morning." 

"Yeah," Prompto agreed, a little bit wistful until another thought occurred to him. "Hey. You think they've already left to get those smoothies?"

Noct went very still as they looked at each other, then, without another word, they rushed up the pool steps to retrieve their swim trunks and find out. 

~o~


	2. Adult

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Live, Laugh, Lube.

"So how about a pit stop?" 

Ignis was unmoved by the request, though he did spare Gladiolus a glance in the rear-view mirror. "It's forty miles to the next rest area, surely--" 

"Ditto that," Prompto said, with a crease of worry between his eyebrows. "Thanks, big guy, I was trying to get up the nerve to ask."

Ignis sighed. Every morning he planned out their itinerary, and every morning it was in utter shambles by ten. "Noct?" 

"Yeah," Noct admitted from the back seat, without opening his eyes. "Me too." 

"It is remarkable to me," Ignis said, flexing his hands on the steering wheel, "that somehow this car contains the three tiniest bladders in all of Lucis. What are the odds? Extraordinary." 

"Hmph." Gladio shifted his weight in the back seat, and gave the back of Ignis' head a meaningful look. "Ain't my bladder that's the problem." 

"Ah." Ignis raised his eyebrows and lowered the gas pedal. "Pit stop it is, then." 

 

"Ahaha _wow_ this is going to be awkward," Prompto said, as the Regalia rolled to a stop on a gravel lot and they surveyed the building attached to it. All of them, that is, except Gladio, who was already on his way inside.

"This is the only option, unless you want to wait until we reach Caem," Ignis said. "Any port in a storm, Prompto." 

"Yeaaahhhh," Prompto agreed, slowly getting out of the car and squinting at the large neon letters above the shop roof, visible for at least a mile around. "I don't think whoever came up with that phrase was considering Port _Pink Coeurl: Adult Emporium, Gifts and Novelties._ " 

"Very likely not," Ignis said, clicking the Regalia's alarm. "Let's hope they have clean facilities and don't ask Noct for his identification, or we'll have some explaining to do as to why the supposedly deceased King of Lucis is stopping at a rural dildo-monger to use the toilet." 

"Cr-rap." Prompto gave Noct a worried look. "I hadn't thought of that. Noct, do your best to just...look over eighteen, okay? Way over." 

"Sure," Noct said, with a heavy helping of sarcasm. "If you do your best to act over twelve." 

"Oh god," Ignis breathed, in something like supplication. Years of training, of discipline, of preparation to aid his king in times of both triumph and turmoil, and yet _not once_ had this particular scenario crossed his mind. He was utterly unready, and he knew it. Prompto was right. _Awkward_ did not begin to cover it. "My one comfort is that these places thrive on discretion," Ignis said, to nobody except perhaps the numerous gods that seemed to have abandoned him. "But you just know it's going to be dreadful." He shuddered in anticipation. "Cheap strawberry-flavoured lube and anatomical lollies as far as the eye can see." 

Noct looked at Ignis askance through his bangs, which he was trying to arrange in a way that clearly said _I'm totally legal and totally not royalty please don't card me_. "How would you kno--" 

"Nothing for it," Ignis said briskly, and strode off towards the low, windowless cinder-block building. "Best get it over with." 

 

Ignis Scientia had never before been quite so pleased to be wrong. Despite its sketchy exterior (and even sketchier name), on the inside the Pink Coeurl was filled with sparkling glass cases and immaculate shelves, all boasting a selection and quality of wares that would have been eye-opening for the capital. Even Prompto and Noct, who were unused to such establishments, were taken aback by the place. 

"Wow," Prompto said. "Gotta say I wasn't expecting this."

"Yeah," Noct agreed, blinking at a row of glass toys nestled in velvet. He wasn't sure what they were all for, but they looked like works of art. "I mean, can a porn store be classy? Because this place is kinda... _classy_." 

"Of course they can be classy," Ignis said. "And this one is remarkably so--good lord." He had just spied a designer-label confection of onyx and mythril in one of the cases, tastefully lit by a low spotlight. "There's a six-month waiting period for that model inside the wall. Does this place have a mailing list?" 

"Hey, guys," Gladio was over by the register chatting to the shop owner, an older man in jeans and a Hunter HQ t-shirt. He gave off a relaxed and nonthreatening vibe, like a cool dad who played video games and never bothered with setting curfew. "Bathroom's in the back--" He turned back to the shopkeeper and said in a low voice, "This is the rest of my party, they're all cool." 

The owner gave the three of them a once-over and nodded easily, well-skilled at gauging people's ages in a glance (as well as inferring other interests and tastes that they might be more reluctant to confess). "Yeah, it's no problem. So which one were you asking about, Gladio?"

"Oh, right." Gladio tapped the glass counter, indicating something shining in the case below. "Does this one come in stainless or only in the rose gold finish?" 

 

Gladio had determined that the accessory he liked did come in stainless (and also in a nice range of sizes) and had gone to look at the leather racks when Ignis noticed that Noct and Prompto had both been out of the bathroom a long time, and were having a whispered and urgent conversation over in one corner, complete with a lot of hand-waving and pointing. 

"If you don't know, then ask him. He'll know." 

"No way am I asking Iggy about any of--" 

"Might I be of assistance?" Ignis offered, shutting Noct up mid-protest.

"Yes," Prompto said, at the same time that Noct said "No." Then they reversed it. Noct put his face in his hand. 

"Fine, ask him," he said. "But don't make me watch while you do." 

"So, u--u-um." Prompto's hand was visibly unsteady as he gestured to the shelf. "We were wondering--" 

"Tsst," Noct said, in warning. 

" _I_ was wondering," Prompto corrected himself. 

"You were both wondering, but one of you was pretending _not_ to wonder." Ignis set them right. "Understood. Go on." 

"Yeah," Prompto had gone the same color as a row of expensive crimson silicone vibes on the wall behind him. "About the um... the lu--these." 

"The lube," Ignis said, and Noct emitted a high-pitched whine like a malfunctioning magitek trooper and turned his back on both of them, eyes on the relatively safe store ceiling. 

"I'mmm gonna diiiie~" he sang softly, to nobody in particular. 

"Oh for the love of the Cosmos," Ignis said, in exasperation. "This is an adult store, is it not? So let's try to act like adults. Shall we?"

Noct continued to stare at the ceiling. Prompto took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay." 

"You weren't really the problem, Prompto," Ignis said. "But what do you want to know?" 

Prompto tipped his head at the shelf. "Just... What's the deal with the lube?" He got the word out without a stammer, but laughed nervously once he had. "There's like a zillion kinds?" 

"That's because there's a zillion--well. At least, shall we say, _numerous_ uses. Were you going to get some?" 

"Yes?" Prompto said, and his hands attempted to come loose and flap off across the store, or at least that's what it looked like before he stuffed his thumbs in his belt. "I mean, I thought--" he cleared his throat and brought his voice down an octave. "...yes. We didn't know what kind." 

"Well, then." Ignis glanced at his king. "That depends entirely on what you intend to do with it. The first thing to ask is if Noct is actually fucking you." 

Noct coughed politely into his hand and scrunched up his face, as though he was willing himself to answer but the signal wasn't making it to his mouth. "Welleye--I uh. Weem. Er." 

"Ah," Prompto said, because Noct seemed temporarily incapable of speech, and Prompto couldn't take the suspense anymore. He was still a little shaky, but Ignis' practicality was unfailing and he hadn't laughed at them yet. "We--He is. We are. It's both ways around, anyway." 

Ignis did not so much as bat an eyelash. "Right, that's helpful to know. And quite magnanimous of you, your highness." 

"Ig. Nis." It turned out Noct could still talk after all. Or at least make vague threats and glare balefully. 

"Now." Ignis tapped one finger along the edge of the shelf, all business. "This is what we've got here, though brands and quality will of course vary: Water-based thin, water-based heavyweight, silicone thin, silicone extra-thick for anal, silicone anal desensitizing--and I don't advise it because then what's the _point_ , especially since I assume it's something you both enjoy?" 

"Enk," Prompto said, which Ignis took for an affirmative. 

"Good. Besides, better not to numb anything, especially at this stage. Because then you've no way of knowing if you're going too far--it's best to listen to your body on these occasions." Ignis moved over to the next row of bottles. "These over here are flavored--water-base or oil--and probably all taste dreadful, regardless. And--" he peered at one of the products on the end. It was in a jam jar, complete with a little checkered fabric cover. "What on Eos is this wank? ...Organic, it says." He put it back with a shudder. "Whatever that's supposed to mean. Who the devil buys organic _lube_?" 

Gladio poked his head around a rack full of body harnesses. "They have _organic_? Is it _Royal Jelly_? The beeswax-based cream one?" 

Ignis rolled his eyes. "Eugh. No. You try putting that rubbish up in me and we'll both be sorry. Royal Jelly. Do I look like a toast rack to you?" 

Gladio pouted at him through the display of posture collars. 

"At any rate, I'd recommend this for you two." Ignis picked up a friendly-looking pump-bottle and dropped it into Prompto's hand. "It won't react with latex--which you had damn better well be using--you are, aren't you?"

Prompto nodded. He had in fact been nodding the entire time, because he wasn't quite sure how to make himself stop. "Y-yeah. Noct had some." 

"Heh." Gladio chuckled to himself and held up a pair of chaps to check the size. "Knew it." 

"Good," Ignis said. "Get some more while you're here, then. And some of the little sample lube packets to keep on you, you'll thank me later--Noct, are you all right?" 

"No," Noct said, in a voice so small and uncertain that it got lost on the way out of him and was unable to ask any strangers for directions. "I'm kind of screaming inside, actually?" 

"Yes?" Ignis folded his arms. "Why is that?" 

Noct's expression darkened. "Well because--" He made a gesture around the shop, and the obvious situation. "You're just... this is--Come _on_." 

Ignis took a deep breath. "Noctis. You're twenty, you're known me nearly your entire life--" 

"I think that's kinda the problem," Prompto muttered. 

"Do we really have to pretend to be squeamish about this?" 

"I'm not _pretending_ ," Noct shot back. 

"Aren't you? Because a responsible lover owes it to his partner to be both informed and honest, and you are hardly irresponsible. Or would you rather I have to take one of you to a clinic in the middle of the night because you've lost some non-flanged hot-pink jelly trinket up your arse?" 

Noct had clearly never before considered anything so embarrassing in his entire life, and he stared at Ignis in unrestrained horror. "Can--can that actually happ--" 

" _Yes_." Ignis said, emphatically. "It can. Which is why you owe it to yourself to be bloody well-educated about this sort of thing. And if you're old enough to do it you're old enough to talk about it. Of course it's awkward. It's awkward for me, too." 

"Wow," Prompto said. "Couldn't tell, I gotta say, Specs." 

"Of course it is. I'm only human, and it's always a little uncomfortable the first time." Ignis realized what he'd said, and went a faint shade of pink under the fluorescent lighting. "Talking about it. I mean. But it needn't be. While it's charming to be shy and it's admirable to be discreet, prudish is right out and a waste of all our time. Adults have no call to get tongue-tied about their love affairs, and friends should not, either. As for kings, such dilly-dallying is an indulgence of the idle classes, and is best avoided. Eyes forward and unblinking, Noct, and let others fret about manners and other niceties." 

"But." Noct scowled ferociously. "That's what I'm talking about. Kings are supposed to be... kings, you know?" 

"You mean," Ignis said, somewhat more kindly, "Human? Because Kings are that. And humans are not born with an innate knowledge of various sexual practices and the complementary lubricant varieties and uses." 

"I thought _you_ were, actually." Gladio began. 

"Gladio, you're not helping. Go try on your leather trousers. Noct." Ignis gave him a bracing smile. "I'm your advisor, and I'm supposed to advise you about matters both public and private. It's the very reason we were brought up together, for you to be comfortable around me. But I'm also your friend, and I know something about this sort of thing. So you can ask me as either your friend or your strategist, whichever one you feel more comfortable with, I don't mind, and I'll answer you honestly and I won't judge. Of course it's entirely your prerogative to fumble along on your own and learn as you go, but I think for Prompto's sake, at least, you should have some idea of what you're doing." 

Noct thought very hard about this for a moment, frowning at a rack of neatly-boxed ball gags without seeing them. "Yeah." 

"And it's not like you to be so reticent." Ignis put a hand on his shoulder. "So tell the truth. Are you genuinely embarrassed about this? Or are you embarrassed because you think you must be some marble statue of a ruler and the general arbiter of the nation's morals?" 

Noct blinked at Ignis. "Shouldn't I?" He looked at Ignis' necklace and the tiny carved black pearl skull looked back at him, as serene and nonjudgmental as it ever had been. 

"Dude," Prompto said, juggling the bottle Ignis had given him as well as several other interesting things he'd picked up while they were talking. "We're your _friends_! We share a bathroom! We're here because Gladio had to take a dump, I mean--You don't have to be like that around us." 

"That's different," Noct said. "The bathroom stuff, the fighting... It's not... sex." 

"Not really," Ignis assured him. "We're all far too aware of what our bodies do in terms of battle and biology, I don't see why decent, honest pleasure has to be subject to other rules." 

"I didn't realize I was doing it," Noct said, as though to himself. "I just thought--" He put a hand to his mouth in realization. "Oh, Shiva. I was trying to act like my _dad_." 

"Yikes," Prompto said, but it was hard to tell if it was in response to the conversation, the armful of merchandise he was about to drop, or the complicated latticework of leather strapping and o-rings that Gladio had just pulled off the hanger.

"And a good man and a great king your father was," Ignis said, with one hand to his heart. "But he is not here, and..." he lowered his voice, "just as well. If you get my meaning. I think it's best, in a place like this and with your own friends--and certainly your own lover--to be yourself." 

"Right." Noct said, and it was though a weight had fallen from his shoulders. "You know? You're right. Sorry, Prompto." 

Prompto was unconcerned. "No problem, man. We've all got stuff we don't know. Like, I didn't know what that rotary tongue thing was for, either! ...I'm still a little iffy on it. I...uh. Don't think I have whatever body part it's for." 

"You don't," Gladio snorted. 

"And thanks, Ignis," Noct said, and he managed to meet his eyes for the first time since they'd come in the store. "Thanks for a friend's advice." 

"What else are friends for?" Ignis replied. "Now! Let's get what we all might need from this frankly remarkable establishment, and be on our way." 

"Ha," Gladio said, still shopping. "That's more like it, Noct. Besides, it's not like your old man ever hit up a porn store anyway! What would he even know about it? You already got him beat just bein' here." 

"Hey, fellas," the owner said, stepping back inside with his just-delivered mail. "Izzat your car out there? I'd know that heap o' chrome anywhere. Is one of you Reggie's boy?" 

They all froze in place where they were--Prompto with a gun-shaped multi-speed vibe still buzzing in one hand--and Noct made some tight sound in his throat, giving himself away. 

"Man!" The owner slapped his newspaper on the counter. "I knew you looked familiar! Damn if he wasn't one of my best customers when I first started out. Gave me a lot of pointers on the look of the place. Real Crown City class kinda guy. I haven't seen him in--" 

"Twenty or thirty years?" Prompto suggested, all innocence. 

The owner nodded. "Guess it's been 'bout that, yeah. I think he's still got a whole shitload of discount points too. Tell you what, you want to use them? Get you 25% off." 

Noctis kind of... twitched. 

" _Sweet_ ," Gladio whistled, and picked up the jacket he'd regretfully passed on earlier.

"In that case," Ignis said brightly, "Get two bottles of that, Prompto, and I'll go have a look round at the restraints." 

 

It was half an hour later before they actually emerged, carrying several unmarked black shopping bags and with Noct's wallet considerably lighter. 

"Okay," Prompto was saying, "I can see why someone _might_. But personally? I can't even stand getting a static shock, I can't imagine doing it on purpose. Brrr." 

"No accounting for taste, Prompto," Gladio said, heaving their shopping into the back seat. 

"Although," Prompto was thoughtful, "if I could reverse-engineer the controls on one of those e-stim units and hooked up Noct's elemancy to it--" 

"Oh no you don't," Noct said, grabbing the back of Prompto's vest and pulling him back. "I've blown enough money today. On you. On all of you. And in Ignis' case, on several things I don't even know how they work or what they're for, but they were expensive." 

"Okay, okay." Prompto got in the car, and immediately turned around to rummage in the bags. "Nice of him to throw in a t-shirt. No idea where I'm gonna wear it, though." 

"Don't want to advertise Cleigne's largest selection of adult gifts and novelties during our next encounter with the Empire?" Ignis clicked his tongue as he backed them onto the road again. "I'm so surprised." 

"I've always wondered what the fuck an _adult_ gift is supposed to be, anyway," Gladio said, with an admiring glance at his new leather cuffs, and their very sturdy d-rings. "I mean I know what they mean, but it sounds like--" 

"...A complimentary tire rotation?" Ignis suggested. 

"Roof gutter debris covers," was Prompto's idea.

"Nah," Noct said. "Totally a crockpot." 

"That's adulthood for you," Ignis sighed. "It's not all thongs and floggers." 

Gladio laughed. "Then I guess an adult _novelty_ would be--?" 

"An hour of free time," Ignis said contentedly, thinking about the one he'd just spent. And throwing the Regalia into gear, he drove on. 

~o~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Personally? A stop at the Lion's Den is the only thing that ever gets my ass through West Virginia.)
> 
> BY REQUEST:  
> IN THE BLACK BAGS:  
> *Free t-shirt (goes with Prompto's Gimme Cat one)  
> *Stainless steel cock ring (size Gladio)  
> *Leather wrist cuffs (functional d-rings, otherwise discreet)  
> *Black tank top that says DADDY, sizexxl (guaranteed to make Ignis pretend he doesn't know you)  
> *Silk cord (black)  
> *Arty-looking white silicone masturbation sleeve  
> *A pair of brown and red socks that say "stud" on them (Prompto: they were on clearance! And i didn't bring enough socks...)  
> *A squishy stress ball shaped like a boob that's constantly being left in someone's bag, or bed, or the bathtub etc, for comedy reasons  
> *Surgical steel & silicone shower enema kit, travel version (the thing Noct didn't know what it was; aka Ignis is fastidious as hell)  
> *One absurdly overpriced carved onyx dildo with mythril fittings (InsomniArts' LE commemorative model for M.E. 755, "King of Night", #15 in an edition of 100) that Noct will probably be too intimidated to use but will most assuredly get used on him  
> *A pretty but inexpensive glass ass plug (medium, "blue galaxy" colorway)  
> *Water-based heavyweight lube (2)  
> *Silicone lube (for use in the shower, and because Ignis is very brand-loyal)  
> *Gladio's ridic organic jackoff honey  
> *Toy cleaning fluid  
> *Assorted condoms  
> *Assorted sample size lube vials/packets  
> *A buzzy purple jelly cock ring/bullet vibe that got thrown in for free  
> *that stupid gun vibe/dildo that will nearly get Prompro killed when it winds up in the armiger by accident  
> *whatever else is needed for later fics in this series


	3. Turnabout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's only fair play.

If there was one key thing Noct and Prompto had learned, it was to seize the moment. Because moments on the road could be few and fleeting, and usually consisted of five minutes in a diner bathroom or whatever time could be stolen in the shadows beneath a campsite in the middle of the night. So when Ignis and Gladio went out for the evening for a supply restock, and Ignis pointedly informed them that they would be gone for a minimum of an hour and would be texting before they got back to the hotel, there was no wasting time. Noct and Prompto were in each others' pants nearly before the door had finished closing. 

"What do you think he wants?" Prompto asked, relieving Noct of his shirt with gleeful abandon. "No way he's giving us the night off with no strings attached." 

"If I know Ignis, he just wants us out of his hair." Prompto wasn't getting out of his own clothes fast enough for Noct's liking, so Noct offered some assistance, sending Prompto's jeans towards the end of the bed with more enthusiasm than aim. They landed on the coffee table instead. "Double or nothing they're gonna hang out in a cafe doing fuck all for the next--" Noct's mouth got distracted just then by a tan nipple and its accompanying complement of freckles, and Prompto, for obvious reasons, did as well. They toppled over into a messy tangle of arms and legs and greedy fingers, and for a long time they were busily engaged with the rare pleasure of not having to be fast or furtive with each other, and it was some time before they bothered thinking about Ignis--or anything else--again. 

There were too many other things to consider, like the opportunities afforded by a large bed and an empty hotel room; and the perfect way they fit together, curled on their sides in two lazy half-circles, mouths full of each other. It was easy and it was sweet and Prompto wished they'd had the sense to think of it before. It would have made their high school sleepovers a hell of a lot more memorable. He tried not to think of all the time and privacy they'd had before and never fully appreciated. There was no need to spurn a present just for being late to arrive, and Noct's mouth on his cock was as fine a gift as he'd ever had. So he pressed his face between Noct's thighs and sucked him more eagerly to make up for lost time. 

Noct's reaction was immediate and gratifying, a gasp of startled pleasure against Prompto's spit-slick cock, a spasm of his own against Prompto's tongue as he came. Prompto moaned his appreciation into Noct's belly as he swallowed, his fingers pressing deep valleys into Noct's shuddering thighs. It was something he had never expected to enjoy as much as he did, but now he wasn't sure why he'd ever thought otherwise. There was nothing quite so perfect as Noct coming in his mouth, one hand fisted in his hair, lips shaping Prompto's name against the soft skin between his hipbone and thigh. In those moments there was no doom and no destiny, and Noctis Lucis Caelum was entirely his, and no one else's. He didn't belong to the Astrals or to Lucis, and it wasn't their names he called out in his release. Prompto rested his cheek on Noct's hip and thought nothing, not even his own impending finish, could be better. 

Noct, whispering something ragged and urgent against the base of Prompto's aching cock, proved him wrong. 

"Wha--?" 

"Goddamnit, Prompto." Noct's voice was strained, his body a taut line, and Prompto realized that the pale thighs he was holding were parting for him in invitation. "Are you gonna get in me or do I have to make it an order?" 

Prompto felt as though all the air had been knocked from his lungs. For all his big talk to Ignis back at the Pink Coeurl a few days ago, he had never taken Noct up on his offer. Not yet. When had they even had time? They hadn't, not before now. Now, Prompto realized. It was going to happen now. The rush of blood to his already-hard cock left Prompto feeling dizzy. "Are you su--" His voice died in his throat as Noct rolled over on his back on the disheveled hotel bed and spread himself with both hands. Everything he was laid out in offering for Prompto to take, beautiful and sacred and sluttish all at once. Prompto felt the room start to spin around him. 

"Sure enough for you?" Noct's voice had a waver that he would never admit to and Prompto would never point out, but his eyes were steady, burning like the heart of a star, even as his legs shivered. 

"Got it." Prompto glanced around the room, trying to remember practical things. Like where he'd put that lube. "Where's the--" 

"It's in your duffel." Noct let out a shaky breath. " _Shiva_. Do you always do a pop quiz before you screw someone?" 

Prompto sprawled across the bed to reach his bag without getting up. "So far, I guess I do. But since this is 1 for 1 I'm gonna need more data." He hooked his finger in the strap and dragged the duffel over, rummaging around in the contents until he'd found the bottle Ignis had recommended. They hadn't had a chance to use it yet, and the seal was still on it. He tore the label in his haste to get it open. "This shit's gonna be cold, Noct." 

"Not for long." Noct bit his lip. "Just... don't skimp on it." He had the audacity to wink, to cover his nerves with bravado. "Be gentle with me, it's my first time." 

Prompto's fingers seemed to have forgotten the basic mechanics of a pump-bottle, but he laughed as he managed to get a good handful of the lube in spite of himself. In fact it was probably twice as much as he needed. "You really want me to be gentle with you?" 

Noct groaned, toes curling in the sheet. "No." 

"Then I won't." Prompto slid his hand over and against Noct, wetting him with the lube and watching the color rise up in his face. He leaned down and put his lips to Noct's ear, his hard cock a warm promise against Noct's belly. "I'll just... take you." Prompto spread his fingers and Noct was irrevocably exposed in every sense of the word. Uncovered. Found out. Opened for anyone to see. Prompto was touching him and looking at him and Noct burned with it, though what he was feeling was nothing close to shame. "Right here, Noct." 

Prompto's slick fingers moved into him with surprising ease and Noct cried out softly in mingled pleasure and wonder. It seemed impossible to him that he could have gone two decades in his own body with no idea what this could feel like, be like. But he had. And now that he was shaking with it, he understood. 

This is what Prompto had felt the first time--that night in Lestallum's pool, riding Noct's cock until he made himself come. This was why he would blushingly ask for Noct's fingers during every furtive blowjob since then. This was why he'd had the nerve to right out ask Ignis about lube in the middle of a brightly-lit porn shop, even as Noct was praying for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Because Prompto knew what it was like, and had wanted it to be like this for Noct. Easy--but easy like the irrefutable call of an Archaeon, easy as the end of the world. Noct was almost undone with it and yet there was nothing inside him yet but the twist of Prompto's fingers, gun-sure and trigger-calloused, readying him for something better. 

"Is this what you want?" 

Noct couldn't find any words. He shook his head and felt Prompto go still, ready to stop, but it wasn't too much. It wasn't _enough_. 

"More." It came out as a plea that Noct barely recognized as his own voice, just as he could barely believe it as he reached underneath himself and thrust his own fingers in alongside Prompto's, greedy for more, eager to prove he could take it. "Pr-ompto. I want--" He broke off and instead wrapped his free hand around the pretty curve of Prompto's cock, tugging it in invitation. "This." 

"Tell me." Prompto's breath was hot and quick against his ear, his fingers sliding against Noct's, his voice dark and dangerous. "I'm not gonna do it unless you say it." 

"I can't--" 

Prompto laughed softly, catching Noct's earlobe in his teeth. "You're helping me finger-bang you, you can say it out loud." 

"F-fuck me." Like a confession of a sin, it took the weight off him, and his hips stuttered as he fucked himself on their fingers. Not enough. He wanted more, he wanted to be ruined with it. "Prompto, please--" 

Prompto's reply was a wordless exhalation and Noct was suddenly empty, Prompto stroking both their slippery hands down the burning weight of his cock. Noct didn't have a chance to recover before Prompto was pressing up against him, his asshole throbbing against the slow pressure. 

"Noct. Let me in." 

Noct let out a breath as Prompto brought his weight to bear, and there was nothing else in the universe for Noct but the inevitability of Prompto's body entering his. "I--" 

"That's right. Easy. You can take it." 

He was moaning; he couldn't help it. Just how good it was was written plainly on Noct's face, on the sheen of sweat down his chest, on the sweet sting of his nails down Prompto's back. 

"Don't take this the wrong way?" Noct gasped, wetting his lips. "But your cock doesn't look that big on the outside." 

Prompto knew exactly what Noct meant, and he grinned breathlessly. "Different perspective like this, huh?"

"Unngh," Noct's lashes fluttered, and Prompto felt him clench all around him. He was hard again, and he lifted himself up to press his cock against Prompto's belly. "There's so _much_ of you." 

"You've got all of it," Prompto's mouth was steady but his arms, braced on the headboard, were shaking with the strain of holding back. He had no less wonder in taking Noct for the first time than Noct had in being taken, and it required all his resolve not to blindly thrust himself to a shamefully fast finish inside Noct's ass. Noct was so tight around him, more wet and perfect than any girl's pussy Prompto had ever imagined. But Prompto knew his days were numbered, even as he held himself still and let Noct get used to it, giving him as much time as he could manage. Because he knew that once he started, he wouldn't stop until it was over. "Took it like a prince." 

"No, like a kin-- _nngh_ \--" Noct didn't get any further because Prompto had discovered a fine way to shut him up, and he did it two or three times, jolting Noct with his hips until Noct's hands were on his own cock and he was begging for more. There was nothing else Prompto could do but obey. All his well-intentioned patience went right out the window as Noct panted filthy commands that Prompto didn't even know Noct knew. But he did, and he knew how to use them, driving Prompto to a level of ferocity that surprised them both and that neither of them, untried as they were, could sustain. 

The hotel bed rattled underneath them until some distant part of Prompto's brain wondered if they'd break it. He didn't wonder long. With only a cry of warning Noct's body seized around the sweet intrusion of Prompto's cock, squeezing him too tight for Prompto to move, holding him captive as Noct spilled himself all over his fingers. It was too much for any man. Prompto was done. His vision went to white noise as he came in a shuddering rush with Noct's name on his lips, listening to Noct's reaction as he felt the heat of Prompto's release inside of him.

 _Forgot the condom_ , Prompto thought, and then felt a filthy, possessive little aftershock at the realization, just before his arms gave out. They fell down together and held on to each other in the unsteady aftermath, Prompto making a little hiss of pleasure as Noct's body gently pushed him out. They didn't talk, though their hands made promises for later, and Noct drew Prompto's tongue into his mouth for a long kiss that told him plenty. 

"I can guess," Prompto said at last, sweeping Noct's hair back from his forehead, tracing his fingers over the shape of his mouth, "but I kinda want to hear you say it." 

Noct nipped playfully at his fingertips. "What? That I liked it? Did I not say it enough?" He pressed his face against Prompto's jaw. "Which part did you miss?" He dropped his voice to a low growl. " _Fuck me, Prompto. God, your cock's so good, Prompto. You're gonna make me come so hard. Fill me up with it, wanna feel you spill it in me--_ " He had to quit his recitation because Prompto started to make a noise like a teakettle with a clogged whistle, and he chuckled softly into his collarbone. "Was it one of those, or a different one?" 

Prompto cleared his throat. "Actually it was the bit where you said you didn't know you'd like having your ass full of dick so much." 

"Hmm." Noct considered. "Well, I didn't. Not sure about the wording, but it's still true." 

"Too bad," Prompto said, and wrapped his arms and his legs around him. "I would have done it ages ago. But I guess I'd've had to ask Ignis about the lube earlie--" Prompto broke off, going suddenly cold in Noct's arms. 

"Ignis," Noct said, equally leaden with realization. "Shit." 

_"How long have they been gone what time is it where is your phone."_

"It's--" Noct got no further, because if there was one thing Ignis had it was a voice that carried, and right now it was carrying from the end of the motel hallway, and getting closer with every second. 

" _Shower_ ," Prompto said, and had the good sense to grab the lube before kicking their clothes into a somewhat less debauched heap on the floor, flinging the coverlet back over the bed. 

"It stinks like sex in here--" 

"Well then too goddamn bad," Prompto said, shoving Noct into the shower, wrenching it on, and slamming the door a bare two seconds before the motel room door opened. They could hear Ignis and Gladio's voices, the clink of bottles and grocery bags. 

"You know," Noct burbled from under the water, as Prompto climbed in after him and yanked the curtain across, "They know we're screwing. It's not like we have to--" 

"Did _you_ want to be lying naked in bed when they came back, freshly fucked and covered in come and lube?" Prompto shuddered in spite of the steamy shower. "Because sorry to knock you out of it if you did, but I'd like to not die of humiliation today. Or any day." 

Noct pulled Prompto under the water with him, skin to skin and mouth to mouth, and filled his hands with Prompto's ass. "Trust me. You've got nothing to be humiliated about." 

Prompto felt a warm stir of interest low in his belly. "Mmm, well if you--" 

The deafening impact of Gladio's fist on the bathroom door jostled them apart and into full battle crouch, both of them expecting nothing short of Armageddon. But It was only Gladio, which could be better or worse, depending. "Hey Prompto! If you wanna wear ratty-ass undies with fukkin cactuars all over them it's your business, but leave 'em on my pillow again and you're a dead man, got it?" 

"Ah," Noct said, remembering his messy throw when they were stripping. "I think that's my fault." He raised his voice. "My fault, Gladio! Sorry!" 

"I did not need to know that," Gladio grumbled, and whatever else he said was lost as he walked away.

"So maybe _something_ to be humiliated about," Prompto said, weakly. 

"I could take your mind off it?" Noct offered, kissing the taste of shower-water and sweat off Prompto's throat. 

Prompto felt it would be unspeakably rude to refuse his king. "I'm in your hands." 

"Yes," Noct said, "You are." And then he did something about it. 

~o~


	4. Stealth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A matter of protocol.

The problem with Gladio, as Ignis saw it, was that he made some things far too easy. Easier than they had any right to be. Easy enough that Ignis could feel himself getting spoiled by it, or worse, used to it. It certainly didn't help matters that Noct slept like the sainted dead and Prompto, once he finally got to sleep, could not be disturbed by anything short of an airship cannon salute (or the smell of coffee). It also didn't help that Gladio could be unfairly stealthy for any man so big. And he was big. In every sense. 

It was a fact Ignis could hardly ignore in his present position: underneath him, legs spread, biting his lip to stifle the noise he wanted to make as Gladio sank into him, slowly fucking him open with a cock that matched his stature in every way. He was too good at it, and he always had been, and Ignis could never tell him no. Not even in the middle of the night with their two charges asleep an arm's length away. Especially not after an hour of Gladio's hands on him under the covers, of his fingers and his mouth undoing all of Ignis' careful reason. Because he wanted it--merciful six did he want it, would catch himself thinking of it at the worst possible times--and he choked back a moan as Gladio crushed him down into the mattress with the slow force of an avalanche. 

"Shh," Gladio breathed, little more than a cool movement of air on Ignis' sweat-streaked temple. It was sweltering in the hotel room, but they didn't want to risk taking the blanket off. 

"I _know_ ," Ignis panted quietly against his ear. How could he not know? They'd only done this for more nights running than Ignis dared count, and at least in the hotel there was the drone of the oscillating fan to cover any slight noise they made. The tent was more awkward. Not that it had stopped them. 

"No good if one of 'em wakes up now." Gladio's mouth was hot on Ignis' throat, but then, all of him was hot. Especially now. He lay in Ignis like glowing steel in a smelter, and in spite of all their practice, it was something Ignis never got used to. ( _Thank the Cosmos_ , he thought, but would never dream of saying. As far as Ignis was concerned, if a man got used to being fucked by Gladiolus Amicitia he might as well be done with living.) 

"I'm not the one talking." Ignis tried to squirm, but it was like trying to squirm out from under a boulder, and Ignis was pinned. Literally. Thoroughly. 

"You're still making noise." 

"I am _not_." 

"You're breathing hard."

"You're hung like an inordinately-endowed behemoth, of course I'm breathing--" 

Prompto snorted something unintelligible in his sleep and Gladio and Ignis went utterly still and silent, hardly daring to breathe at all--loud, quiet, or otherwise. It was a long, tense moment before they risked moving again, and Ignis could feel his body start to quiver with the strain, particularly the part of him throbbing around Gladio's cock. Eventually Prompto's soft snores resumed, and Gladio kissed a burning line down Ignis' shoulder, and dared one long slow roll of his hips, and then another, until he found the cadence they both wanted. 

It wasn't that Ignis didn't want to be loud. But what he wanted had never factored into his life, and never would. It was unseemly enough for the King's Shield to be fucking the prince's personal advisor, but being noisy about it was right out of the question. Everything Ignis had ever been taught about how to behave and who to be hinged on protocol, on discretion. Nowhere in any of that was there any room for begging Gladio to ruin him like a whore. By all rights, if he was going to engage in such a thing, it should be neatly scheduled between Noct's fencing practice and afternoon political briefing, and both parties should be aware of the timetable. But certainly not on impulse in a rickety motel bed somewhere in Cleigne. Unless they were still in Duscae. Ignis could not even begin to remember. Or care. 

All he could do was hang on to Gladio's shoulders and let the force of him drive them both to the inevitable conclusion--one they'd found several times a night but never tired of reaching. It was the same as it had been the first time, and Ignis had tried, over the years, to dismiss that first time as a youthful mistake. To dismiss Gladio as a mistake. 

He could not be anything else, Ignis had thought back then. Ignis considered him a stupid brute from a line of stupid brutes, because kings always need a good supply of such to keep the common oiks in line. It was not a cruel assessment on Ignis' part, but it was practical. Gladio had a purpose--just as Ignis had a purpose--and their purposes had little to do with each other on a personal front. Gladio was civil enough when they passed in the corridor or the training center, and the fact that he had a magnificent ass had absolutely no bearing at all on anything. So Ignis told himself. Repeatedly, several times a day, and sometimes in the morning when he spent five minutes longer in bed than his schedule permitted. 

But then, the first time they said more than twenty words to one another, it was to get in an argument. About Noct, of course. And his training and his duties and how enough sword training was enough but there were other concerns as well, and what would a thug from House Amicitia know about the proper ways to bring up a prince? Then Gladio had countered with a cutting line from the Second Betrayer's soliloquy in act three of Lord Avon's _Odin, King of Baron_ :

_Kingdoms are not won by words,_  
_nor tyrants felled by songs_  
_But by blood and blade and carrion-bird_  
_and each unrighted wrong._

...And Ignis had thought: _Oh, dear._

Within fifteen minutes they were locked in the armory closet, panting against each other amid heaps of wooden training wasters and broken shields, hoping that Noct would be later for practice than usual. 

Because Noct would always have to be considered first, would always have to stand between them. He was their prince, and was to be their king. Their lives were for him, and that had been the reason Ignis had put a stop to it within a year. It had been, Ignis told Gladio at their parting, a mistake. A lovely one. One he cherished. And Gladio understood and agreed, because he had never been the fool Ignis had taken him for at first. Their duty to Noct was more important than their affair, or the alarming escalation of their relationship. Both of them were used to amputating their personal feelings, and they did so by mutual agreement. They remained friends. Talked about Noct's progress. Met for coffee twice a week. Pretended nothing but fondness was in their hearts.

But then the journey had come and the war had ignited all around them, and the niceties of protocol seemed doomed forever, or at least as doomed as Odin's Second Betrayer had stated in his speech. Blood and blade and carrion-bird were the order of the day, and Ignis' resolve wavered with every night he spent sleeping against Gladio's back. He knew he would break before it was over, unable to keep anything but home and hope at a distance. Eventually the day came when he let Gladio take him on top of a washing machine in a gas-station launderette, and he could not manage to be sorry. 

He still could not be sorry. 

"Ignis." 

Gladio was close, and he was being too loud. Both of them knew it. It was careless of them, but oh, what a perfect carelessness. Surely the other two knew about it in theory. It had been a long time since they'd bothered to hide their flirtations. Would it be such a terrible shame for Noct and Prompto--new lovers themselves--to know it in fact? 

_You gave them such a good speech about honesty and being grown-up about sex_ , Ignis thought, his face burning. _Never admitting how you'd die if either of them saw you like this. If Noct saw you--_ It was an awful thought, freeing and filthy and glorious, and it made Ignis come. Helplessly and without warning, like the boy Gladio had fucked in a closet all those years ago. 

Oh, he wanted Noct to see. 

_I want you to see I'm not so cold, I'm not so cruel, I'm not the man my destiny has made me any more than you are yours... if you saw me now, would you understand, would you want to--_ It was too much even for Ignis' thoughts, as Gladio stifled his own groan in his teeth and buried his face against Ignis' neck, rocking them both through slower waves and into stillness. 

Ignis freed his cramped fingers from Gladio's hair, tilted his head to the side for a shuddering breath of air, and opened his eyes. And in that moment he felt his entire world come to a silent, devastating halt. 

Noct was not asleep. In the lurid afterglow of the motel sign Ignis could see the bite marks across Noct's knuckles, the awkward but telling angle of his arm between his knees, the startled and sated blur of his eyes. How long he'd been watching probably neither one of them could say, but it was plain--by Noct's careful breathing and the slow creep of color across his face--that it had been more than long enough. 

The realization and the release hit Ignis like a swift blow and he sucked in a startled breath--ridiculously loud in the quiet room--at almost the same instant Noct did the same. Noct blinked at him; slow understanding in his face. He thought himself caught, but they had only caught each other. Ignis unfolded one finger across his parted lips; Noct swallowed hard and stifled a not-quite-contrite smile into his pillow. By the time Gladio lifted his head, Noct's eyes were closed. 

"You tryin' to wake up the whole neighborhood?" Gladio breathed, nuzzling a kiss into Ignis' hair. 

"Darling, you could wake the dead," Ignis murmured, and kissed him until they both fell asleep again. 

 

"Morning!" Prompto said brightly, flinging himself into the faded plastic seat of the diner, sliding over for a yawning Noct to join him in the booth. "Are you gonna eat those hash browns, Iggy?" 

"No," Ignis said, sliding his plate across the table. "And nor should you, if you desire a long life. More hash than brown and hardly a tuber to be found." He sniffed in disdain. "Five pounds of deep-fried cheese and onion, to which someone gently whispered 'potato' before plating it." 

"Tastes all right to me," Prompto said, shoveling it in. "Want some, Noct?"

"I want eggs," Noct said, picking up the sticky diner menu. He took a long look at the offerings, but his eyes kept wandering away from flattering photographs of breakfast platters and meeting Ignis' over the peeling laminate edge of the menu. Ignis met his gaze coolly, daring him to say anything. 

"Sleep all right?" Noct asked at last, while studying the pie selections on the back of the menu. 

"No better than you," Gladio said, while Ignis slowly poured a single sugar packet into his coffee. "You've got us all topped." 

Noct waited a calculated moment, just until Ignis had taken a sip of his coffee. "Not yet," he said, and smiled the unperturbed smile of a monarch whose advisor had in no way just kicked him in the shin under the table. Ignis, for his part, drank his coffee like he'd never even consider doing such a thing. Much less twice, in quick succession. Noct looked a tiny bit pained on the second one. Ignis' shoes were sharp. 

"Hope springs eternal," Ignis said, and took a moment to savor his king's blush before he called the waitress over to take Noct's order. 

~o~


	5. Lucky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto Argentum is a lucky man.

Upon reflection, there was a strong possibility that Prompto Argentum's mouth was writing checks his body couldn't cash. Not that he wouldn't do his damnedest to cash them--with his body or his mouth or his hands or anything else he could manage--but in this particular instance, maybe his boast had been a little too glib. Maybe he should have taken his own (modest) experience into account. Maybe he should have considered that none of them were likely to back down from a dare. Or perhaps it just might have been worthwhile to note that when it came to backing up big talk, bigger action was needed. (And on the subject of bigger, Prompto would have been wise to note that Gladio counted double. Always. In everything. But especially in this.)

But no. Prompto always knew his smart mouth would get him into trouble. (Endless authority figures had told him so.) And now he was in as much trouble as he'd ever turned up in his life. Loving every minute of it, to be sure, but none too clear on how long he would hold out.

He'd been a little drunk, to be honest. (He was still a little drunk, though it was harder to tell now what was caused by intoxication and what was caused by other, more heady reactions in his blood.) But he certainly hadn't been sober and neither had anyone else. Maybe the cocktails at the Pearl were pricey, but they packed a wallop, and nobody was walking in much of a straight line back to the camper on the beach. 

And the beach had been beautiful. Moonlight glowing on the water. Wacky phosphorescent fish glowing under the water. Stars, lanterns, and the light of both on the foam. The cool, salty air. His extremely good-looking friends. 

They were all very good looking, it was true, and he was drunk enough to tell them so. And he had, at the bar. And when the moonlight struck Noct's hair just so. And when they stopped to look at the glowing barrelfish, and the eerie fishlight reflected back on their faces. And damn, what a breathtaking view. Beautiful friends on a beautiful beach. He wanted to take pictures of all of them. 

_Can I say you guys are gorgeous? Because you're all fukkin gorgeous. No I have not had too much gin. Is that what was in those? Maybe a little drunk. I'm not used to gin. But it's still true. I'm just being honest._ (Much easier to be honest when a man had drunk as many Galdin Sunsets as Prompto had.) 

It was, Prompto announced, simply the most _romantic_ place at night. And that was a declaration that none of them would let slide. 

"And you get to spend it with us," Gladio said, as if somehow this would make the prospect less appealing. 

"All _three_ of us." Noct's voice was full of mischief, and he probably only meant to tease, but it sure as hell sounded like a proposition. 

"You... are a lucky man." And Ignis, of course, was so damn Ignisy that there was no way to tell if he was joking or not. Not that it mattered, because he was right. Prompto was lucky as hell. And he knew it. 

Still, he probably should have kept his mouth shut. Or at least considered the outcome before he didn't. But how could he? It was beautiful. They were beautiful! It had been a _spectacular_ amount of gin. 

"Damn night I am," Prompto said, reeling in the direction of the camper door, trying to find the handle, "and I'd take you all right here, you buncha hot bitches."

There was a telling, dangerous pause. A shared glance. A nod. And then suddenly they were all crammed into the camper, the door was bolted, and Prompto Argentum was obliged to put his money where his mouth was. Or to put something where his mouth was, anyway. Currently, it was Gladio. 

He found it remarkable, really, how fast a guy could get stripped down to his skin when three people go at him at once. Prompto barely had time to realize what was happening before they were all in the camper bedroom and most of their clothes were outside it. There was such a dizzying blur of hands and mouths on him that he didn't have a chance to be shy. Or to consider what he was getting himself into. 

So to speak. It was really more a matter of what (who) was getting into him, and how, and in what order. Because the physical arrangements of sex can be awkward even with two people and plenty of space to maneuver. And they were four to a bed that was barely wider than a car. But then, Ignis was not a king's strategist for nothing, and he had a good working knowledge of anatomy, ruthless personal ambition, and a filthy imagination. 

Which was all how Prompto found himself where he was, on the bed with Noct under him and Ignis behind him and Gladio in front of him--and his pride on the line. He'd said he could do it, now he only needed to prove it. It sounded simple enough. But that was the key difference between word and deed. 

There was nothing at all simple about taking Noct and Ignis' cocks in his ass at once. Either one of them would have been plenty, and worthy of Prompto's whole attention. Both was an embarrassment of riches. Both with Gladio occupying his mouth was downright ridiculous. He would have laughed, except for how he couldn't make a noise besides a wet moan as he struggled to open his throat for more of Gladio's cock, even as he ground his hips down for Noct and Ignis. 

"Greedy little thing," Ignis said, understandably breathless. He'd let Noct go first (as befitted his rank), and for the first minute or so, apart from the company, it was not much different from a usual fuck. Then Ignis had brought his fingers into play, lube-slick and patient and full of promise, stroking Noct both inside and outside of Prompto, and now and then going on little excursions that made Noct gasp and shudder under them both. 

Prompto could guess where Ignis' other hand was, from Noct's widening eyes and jerking hips. Prompto had never directly asked if Noct and Ignis had ever fooled around, though he expected the answer was no. He had his proof of that now, from the look on Noct's face when Ignis took advantage of Noct's spread legs to steal a few quick thrusts inside his King. Not enough to take either of them over, but enough to drive both Noct and Prompto hard for a few seconds, to promise something for other times. But for now there was Prompto's boast to attend to, and he did just that in one slow, smooth push. Prompto was achingly, gloriously full of them both, his arms shaking, unable to catch his breath. He thought he might faint.

Noct was no better off. Ignis fucking him, however briefly, was bad enough. Realizing they were both in Prompto _together_ , and that it was Ignis' cock sliding alongside his own, was enough to bring him to tears. "God," Noct said, and hung onto Prompto's shoulders like he was the one being taken instead of the other way around. " _Ignis._ Prompto--"

"Let's see just how big that mouth of yours is." Gladio had Prompto's face in one hand, and his own impressive cock in the other, and it was fair to say everyone there was quite eager to see the two of them get together. But Gladio, well aware of his own endowments, did not rush. In fact he was so gentle that for a long time Gladio only stroked Prompto's tongue with his thumb, and glazed his parted lips with the tip of his cock, teasing, promising. Prompto was panting for it, but Gladio would not be hurried. Noct and Ignis were both riding him hard before Gladio let Prompto take him in his mouth, and then only for shallow thrusts that could not be near enough to please. Prompto leaned up for more (he could take it, he wanted to prove it, wanted Gladio's come in the back of his throat and the weight of him throbbing between his aching jaws) but Ignis and Noct were working themselves to a finish, and Gladio wanted to watch. 

Prompto could barely see Noct's face now, but he'd never heard Ignis make those noises before, and together they were jolting him hard enough to set the entire camper rocking on its dilapidated supports. But oh, then Ignis said his _name_ , said in in something like a threadbare plea and Prompto was ready to--

"Not yet, you don't," Ignis breathed into Prompto's shoulder, reaching down to wrap his thumb and forefinger expertly around the base of Prompto's cock and balls, preventing him from coming all over Noct's belly. Instead he could only pant and writhe with frustration as Noct and Ignis fucked him to their finish, ramming him with the same perfect timing of their link-strikes, coming together inside him. Prompto gave himself up to it shamelessly, urged on by Ignis' soft words against his ear. 

_"That's it, good boy, pretty darling, take your King's cock, I know it's not the first time. Show us how you want it, that's right--"_

It was torture. The sweetest he could imagine, as Noct finished and took Ignis with him and Gladio watched them do it, while Prompto, restrained by Ignis' hand, could not. Instead they pulled away, leaving him empty and shivering. But not for long. 

Now at last Prompto understood Gladio's patience. Now, as he pulled Prompto up against him and turned him around, Prompto's back to his chest, and the hard, massive curve of his cock pressed firmly against Prompto's ass. 

"My turn," Gladio growled, kissing a line up from Prompto's shoulder to his ear. Noct and Ignis lay on the end of the bed, eyes dark with pleasure, breathing hard, hands still all over each other. 

_They're going to watch_ , Prompto realized, with a dull thud of his pulse, as Gladio ran his hand down Prompto's chest to the tangle of blond curls around his aching cock, cupping it up in a gesture that was nothing short of a display for the others. _They're going to watch him fuck me._

If the gin had worn off, the fucking had not, and Prompto was drunk on all of them. Noct's gaze was devouring the scene laid out before him, one hand already on his own sated cock. Prompto knew he'd be good for another round before long. 

"Good luck, Prompto," Ignis said, raking his hair back out of his face. Without his glasses (or anything else) he looked his age, a few scant years older than Prompto, but no more. His smile was telling, breathless, eager. "He's bigger than both of us together."

"You said it yourself, Ignis," Prompto said, and his eyelids fluttered as Gladio fingered him, using so much lube that it ran down the insides of Prompto's thighs and made him feel gloriously slutty, "I'm a lucky man." 

"The hell you are," Gladio said, and the head of his cock pressed up against Prompto's asshole. "Or maybe just too hot for your own good."

"Both." Noct bit his lip, reached out to draw Ignis' arms around him and between his legs. "Do it, Gladio. He can take it." 

Prompto gasped out loud, trembling. No he couldn't. He wasn't ready. He wasn't sure he would ever be. Better to admit that now before--

"Easy," Gladio exhaled against Prompto's ear, so only he could hear. "I'll go slow. Okay?"

All Prompto could manage was Gladio's name, broken on his tongue as Gladio moved against him and into him and _Oh god it's gonna be too much he's so much oh god I can't but Noct's watching Ignis's watching Gladio how the hell are you allowed to have a dick this big oh god that's it he's in he's pushing he's--he's ungh he's gonna make me--_

"Noct," Ignis said, and without further command the King of Lucis leaned forward across the stained and ragged camper mattress, and drew Prompto's cock into his mouth. 

"That's it," Gladio said, thrusting freely now as Prompto took him in, forcing Prompto deeper into Noct's mouth. "I always wanted to fuck your tight little ass. Knew you'd take it like a champ." His voice was full of his usual arrogance, but Prompto had not forgotten his careful touch, his restraint. Gladio knew his own strength, and his fierceness was only for play. 

"Gladio," Prompto breathed, the world reeling around him as Ignis drew closer and kissed his open mouth. Such a warm, soft kiss. Ignis's tongue filling up his mouth. Gladio's cock filling his ass. Noct all around him and jerking himself off as he did it. Ignis and Gladio teasing Prompto's nipples to a standing point as he was carried up between them all, floating in a cloud of pleasure. Somewhere through the thin camper walls Prompto could hear the pound of the surf as the tide changed, and Gladio drew that motion into his thrusts, shifting his angle until every stroke ignited sparks behind Prompto's eyelids. He was close. They were taking him. He was going to come for them. 

"Now, Prompto," Gladio said, his hands on Prompto's spread thighs as he fucked him, holding him up with little more than that and the cock Prompto was mounted on. "Let's see it, baby."

 _Now. Yes, now._ The world collapsed down to this moment, this feeling, these friends. _For all of you_ , Prompto thought, and he came. Ignis swallowed his cry and Noct swallowed his come as the release washed over him, in a rush like the luminous tide. Gladio was coming with him, hard and sweet and deep, and Prompto had done it. He'd taken all of them, finished for all of them. Oh, he was lucky. 

He was the luckiest man on Eos. 

 

And he was sore and hungover as hell the next morning. 

The morning light slanted unkindly through the broken blinds, and Prompto braced himself for one of Ignis' _Let's Never Speak of This Again_ announcements. But it did not happen. Not even as they pried themselves out of a bed that was meant to hold two at most, all of them cramped and sticky and an hour behind schedule for their next destination. Prompto thought for certain the whole experience would be dismissed to the realm of hallucinogenic mushrooms and truck-stop honeymoon suites, but instead he got three different good-morning kisses (and one good-morning grope from Gladio) before Noct claimed the Divine Right of Kings in regards to dibs on the shower. 

Prompto had been sure it had been too sweet to last, the night before. As he'd fallen asleep, he told himself to just enjoy it while it he had it. (Enjoy Ignis petting his hair and calling him a pretty creature; enjoy Gladio cradling him in his arms, safe as a golden treasure in a galleon's hold; enjoy the sight of Noct kissing Ignis full on the mouth for at least ten slow, languid minutes while Ignis sucked his King's tongue and blushed like a flustered virgin.) Prompto didn't believe it was the sort of thing that would survive in the sober light of day. Not when all their joking and drunken encounters were always put aside until the next time they let their guard down. 

This time was different. Maybe because it was the furthest they'd ever gone, or maybe it was just one time too many to deny. Ignis got up with a groan and pulled Gladio's tank top over his head (the hem hit the very top of his thigh, tantalizingly), and went to make some coffee. Gladio nuzzled a kiss behind Prompto's ear. 

"You look like you've got something on your mind." His chuckle was ticklish. "Didn't break anything last night, did I?" 

"Um," Prompto ventured, wondering where his clothes had ended up. "My brain?" 

Gladio laughed, and he caught Prompto up in his generous hands. "Likewise, punk. You sorry?" 

Prompto considered it, while Noct cursed at the tepid dribble of water in the shower and Ignis filled the cabin with the smell of hot coffee. 

"I'm not sorry," Prompto sighed happily, burying his hands in the weight of Gladio's hair. "I'm _lucky_." 

"Ain't we all," Gladio said, and they pushed their luck a little further until the coffee was ready. 

~o~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Galdin Sunset  
> 2 oz gin  
> 2 oz St-Germain (elderflower)  
> 1 oz lemon sour mix  
> 1 oz peach cider (or peach schnapps, if you didn't get a jug of peach cider on a recent road trip like we did ;)
> 
> Shake with ice. Strain into a glass with fresh ice, top up glass with seltzer water (Coctura uses a coconut-lime seltzer), lemon or orange rind twist if desired. Get lucky. 
> 
> Caution: Dangerously slammable. Feel free to indulge in increasingly drunken speculation as to which ingredient represents which character. Or just ask me to tell you in the comments.


	6. Caterpillar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some shortcuts are better avoided.

"Man oh man oh man," Prompto said, as the forest thinned ahead of them and the campsite came into view: a large, friendly-looking spot in the fading afternoon. "Am I ever glad to see those runes. Last one there's a dud chocobo egg!" He plowed off ahead of the others, skipping the path and pushing through the waist-high shrubs to get to the haven faster.

"Hey," Gladio said, sticking to the trail. "You sure you want to do that?"

"It's not poison-vine," Prompto said, with the confidence of a man who has already learned something the hard way. "And I'm beating all of you there! See ya, suckers!"

Gladio shrugged. "If you say so." 

"Hmm," Ignis said, with narrowed eyes. 

Noct was walking along the path with his face glued to his phone screen as he cleared his hourly Zell Tree harvest in King's Knight, and didn't say anything.

"King of the mountain!" Prompto announced, as the rest of them trudged up to the fire circle five minutes later, and at least two after Prompto's arrival.

"Oh yeah?" Gladio gave Prompto a measured look. "Whaddya win for that?" He put down the tent bag with a rattle of steel poles, while Ignis began to set up his camp kitchen. Noct was still on his phone.

"A conviction of high treason," Ignis muttered, and began poking in the ingredient bags. "Considering we've already got a king."

"Aw, dammit!" Noct swore at his phone. "I can't beat this fucking dungeon and I need two mythril to upgrade my dragoon. Ignis, you gotta switch your leader back to that red mage for me."

"Such as he is." Ignis lifted his eyes heavenward, and began to sort through his vegetables.

"You guys just don't want to admit that I was right, and my shortcut was faster," Prompto said, folding his arms. "And I think for that I deserve to--" He paused, a peculiar expression coming over his face. "Deserve... deserve to... um." He shifted his weight, and Gladio looked at him expectantly. 

"Something eating you, Prom-pom?" Gladio asked, in what would have been innocence if not for his ill-concealed grin. 

"Probably," Ignis sang softly, into the grocery bag. "Several somethings."

"Nice moves, Prompto," Noct said, finally looking up from his phone and snorting back a laugh as Prompto danced around in a panicked circle, trying to get his shirt out of his belt. "Whaddya call it?"

" _CATERPILLARS!!_ " 

Prompto's friends, being the loyal, steadfast companions they were, fell apart into gales of laughter at his expense.

"Prompto," Ignis said, trying to keep his face somewhat in order. "It's good to remember that paths generally exist for a reason."

"Augh augh they're all fuzzzzyyyyy," Prompto yelled, flinging caterpillars in every direction as he tried to reclaim the sovereign territory of his underwear. "Gettemmofffmeee! Noct!"

"Hey, you stay the hell over there," Noct said, throwing his arms defensively over their rolled-up bedding. "Don't go getting bugs all over the blankets I'm sleeping in."

Prompto made a little whimper. "But!! _There are caterpillars on my balls!_ "

"Those are pubes," Gladio chortled, nearly in tears at the hilarity of it all. "Guess you finally got some!"

This set off a fresh round of laughter, and even Ignis had to stuff his face in the crook of his elbow and pretend it was just the pepper getting to him. "They're not poisonous, Prompto, it's all right."

Prompto glared at them all. It was most certainly not all right, but he had re-zipped his pants, fluffed up his hair, and reclaimed at least some of his dignity. "Gosh, guys. You're just _so_ supportive. And Gladio, especially. Wow."

"My pleasure," Gladio said, starting to unpack the camp equipment. "Anytime."

Prompto stepped up beside him. "And I want you to know something."

"Oh, yeah? Wazzat?"

"So you may be the biggest and strongest of us? But." Prompto leaned down, as though to tell a secret. " _I'm_ the _fastest_."

Gladio didn't look up from laying out tent pegs. "What does that have to do with anythi--" 

He got no further, because at that exact moment Prompto dropped a huge, squirming handful of caterpillars directly on Gladio's head, and _bolted_.

" _PROOOMMPTOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_ " Gladio's roar was enough to shake the trees as he stood up, caterpillars dribbling off his hair and beard as Prompto put as much distance as possible between them, leaping down the side of the campsite and sprinting into the trees. " _YOU BETTER BE ABLE TO RUN YOUR SKINNY ASS BACK TO INSOMNIA, COS I'M GONNA MURDER IT IF I CATCH YOU._ "

"Now now," Ignis said blandly, taking a sip of wine before adding a splash of it to the sauce he was building. "Boys."

"You did kinda ask for that," Noct added. "The whole pubes thing."

But Gladio had already torn off after Prompto through the forest, leaving a wreckage of broken branches and trampled shrubbery in his wake.

"Are you just going to lie there and let him go throttle your best friend?" Ignis asked, glancing at Noct over his recipe notebook.

Noct put his hands behind his head, leaning back on their bedding. "Hell, yes. First peace and quiet I'll have all week. I'm takin' a nap."

"Ah," Ignis said in understanding, and went back to making dinner, enjoying the lovely evening, distant crunching and screams from the undergrowth notwithstanding. "Yes. Fancy a glass of wine, Noct?"

"Sure." 

*

It had not been the smartest idea of Prompto's young life, he knew. His one hope was to keep running until Gladio cooled off enough to think it was funny, but in retrospect he realized that might take three or four years, at minimum. And so he ran, pell-mell through the fading afternoon, trees flickering by like streetlights as he tried to put as much distance between himself and Gladio as possible. He'd have to be back at the campsite before full dark--they both would--but Prompto figured it would be easy enough to circle around and come at it from the other side. He hadn't been wrong in his assessment: he _was_ the fastest.

But then, Gladio was _tireless_ , and he could be just as cunning as Ignis, in his own way. Prompto had just started to make his first turn back to the campsite when a tattooed arm shot out of the trees, snatched him by the front of the shirt, and threw him down on the ground before he'd fully realized he'd been caught. And by the time he did realize it, Gladio was already sitting across his chest, arms folded, glowering down at Prompto with all the ominous doom of a death-spell countdown. One that had just gone into the single-digits. 

"Got you," Gladio said, barely winded. Why wear yourself out running when you could lie in wait and spring an ambush instead?

Prompto's legs scrabbled around in the grass; he put his hands on Gladio's thighs and tried to push himself away, but there was no escape. "Haaaa... ahahaha... c'mon. Gladio--it was a joke--"

"Now," Gladio continued, as if Prompto hadn't spoken, "What am I going to _do_ with you, hmmmm?" He leaned over until they were nose-to-nose, and Prompto's useless wriggling intensified.

"Aahhhh Gladio omigod don't hurt me _help_ \--" 

"Oh," Gladio purred, as his hands landed on either side of Prompto's head, caging him in. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Not much. Not more than you like."

Prompto's panicked whimper made an abrupt change in pitch as Gladio's mouth came down over his, hot and inescapable, and his tongue pushed between Prompto's teeth in a messy and uncompromising kiss. It was not brief and it was not subtle, and Prompto was squirming for a whole other set of reasons by the time Gladio finally relinquished his mouth.

"Ungh," Prompto gasped, the most eloquence he could manage. His lips were red and tingling from the roughness of Gladio's beard, his pants uncomfortable in a way that had nothing to do with caterpillars. 

"I think you owe me an apology." Gladio caught Prompto's chin in his hand and put his thumb in Prompto's mouth to open it. He unzipped his pants with his other hand. "You can start by sucking my cock."

 _Yeah_ , Prompto thought, running his tongue around Gladio's thumb as though his cock was already there. He could totally start with that. He slid his hands up Gladio's thighs and squeezed the powerful muscle under the leather, and Gladio chuckled.

"If I didn't know better," he said, freeing his cock and stroking it for Prompto to see, "I'd think you'd like that."

Prompto shrugged off Gladio's hand and angled up to kiss the head of his cock, tasting hot skin, and leather, and the wet salt that had gathered like a bright little jewel at the tip. Gladio's laugh was less steady as he pulled back. 

"Hey, this is a punishment. I wanna see some contrition, here."

Prompto flopped back on the grass and bit his lips, grinning breathlessly. "Oh, like what? _Please, Gladiolus, whatever you do, don't fuck me in the mouth with your big dick?_ "

"That is the least convincing reverse psychology I ever heard in my whole goddamn life," Gladio said, but his eyes had gone dark in a way that wasn't due to the fading light, and the head of his cock flushed a deep, eager burgundy as he rested it on Prompto's lips.

"Sorry," Prompto whispered against it. "It's the best I can do with this kinda view." And he opened his mouth for a long, slow suck, while Gladio closed his eyes and shuddered.

"Take it," Gladio breathed, and slid his whole cock into Prompto's beautifully willing mouth, until Prompto was almost gagging on it, his tongue lapping the soft skin at the base of Gladio's balls. "Fuck, you're good at that, Prompto."

Prompto couldn't answer, so he hummed a pleased little hum, caught Gladio up in both hands, and proceeded to lavish his attention on the tip of Gladio's cock. Gladio leaned back, groaning, his hips rocking as he petted Prompto's hair. He let him carry on a long time, enjoying the luxury of getting sucked off in the woods on a lovely spring evening. But daylight was dwindling, and so was Gladio's patience. 

Gladio pulled Prompto's hands away, pushed him back onto the grass, and started to fuck his mouth in earnest. Prompto responded to the change in tone with messy, greedy enthusiasm, squeezing Gladio's ass, grinding his own down against the unforgiving earth as though imagining Gladio's cock somewhere else. 

"You like doing that, pretty thing? You suck your king's cock like that?" 

Prompto writhed, fists clenched in the grass, desperate to touch himself but unable to reach. Gladio was merciless, stroking Prompto's face as he thrust fully into his mouth. 

"Yeah, I bet you do. I bet you drink his come until he's dry. Bet you beg him to fuck your ass just like a greedy little slut."

Prompto made a hungry, animal noise, fingers tearing up chunks of grass in frustration. Gladio's eyebrows went up in mild surprise. "Oh," he said, in a rough whisper. "You _like_ that, huh? Figured you liked sweet talk better. Or maybe you just like anything." 

Prompto couldn't answer, but his eyes were blue and blazing as his mouth dragged relentlessly on Gladio's cock. 

"Maybe it's both? I bet it's both. Sweet and dirty." Gladio leaned down as close as he could, until his sweat dripped on Prompto's face, and he said, "You're the king's pretty whore, aren't you? You think he knows what I'm doing to you right now? You think he'd like to watch? Or maybe you _want_ him to watch--want him to watch me ruin his sweet boy right in front of him, watch you begging me like the slut you are--"

Prompto went wild. He shouldn't like it. Gladio's voice was so gentle. Every word came out like the most tender endearment. But the things he said... It was mean and it was degrading--wasn't it? But then why did it make Prompto so hard it hurt, why did it make him want to admit to everything Gladio said, and ask for more of it? _Yes I'm his whore yes I take his cock yes I've taken yours too while he watched I'd do it again if that makes me a slut then I'm a slut just touch me use me fuck me--_

"Shit," Gladio gasped, as Prompto swallowed him down as far as his aching jaws and straining throat could manage, as if to prove everything that Gladio said was true. His voice was rough, unstable. "Did I go too far, baby?"

 _Yes,_ Prompto thought, and held on to Gladio's hips with both hands, his mouth savage and relentless, sucking, licking, swallowing. _You went too far. Now pay up._

Gladio made a groan of desperation and with a tremendous effort pulled out of Prompto's mouth just in time to come all over his beautiful upturned face. 

"That," Gladio panted, thoroughly enjoying the sight, "is what you get for picking a fight you can't finish."

"Oh, I can finish." Prompto's laugh was dangerous; he licked Gladio's come off his lips and reached down to undo his belt. "You said I didn't have any pubes," he grinned. "Get down there and take a good look."

Gladio flopped down beside him on the grass. "You tellin' me what to do?"

"I'll give you a choice." Prompto's eyes flashed. "Either you suck your king's whore off, or he fucks you right here."

Gladio shivered, deliciously. "You know," he said, leaning over Prompto's face, "I'm tempted to let you try it." He licked a spatter of his own come off Prompto's cheek. "I bet you'd be a fun top. But it's getting dark, and I don't have any lube. Because some son of a bitch threw worms in my hair." 

Prompto tilted his head to kiss Gladio on the mouth. "They were caterpillars," he said, and tapped a finger on Gladio's lips. "And you deserved it."

"Yeah, I did." Gladio batted Prompto's hands away and settled down between his thighs, fingers hooked in Prompto's belt loops, tugging his jeans down. "Now let's see those pretty blond curls." 

* 

Over the peaceful sounds of the evening--the late birdsong, the crickets, the breeze in the pines and the crackling fire--Ignis could hear the unmistakable rise and fall of Prompto's voice in the throes of pleasure. He chuckled wickedly into his tin cup of wine. Murder, indeed. They'd better make quick work of it, he thought. The sun was setting, and dinner was nearly ready. Ten more minutes, and then he'd go get them.

"Though that does remind me," Ignis said, to his king sitting beside him, "...Noct. About that night in Galdin Quay. I... I hope you know that--"

King Noctis Lucis Caelum interrupted his advisor's confession with a soft snore. His head was nodding gently back on the chair, his own cup, barely tasted, tipping dangerously out of his hands. Ignis caught it at the last second and smiled wryly, shaking his head. What did he expect? Wine always put Noct to sleep, even more than everything else did.

"Ah," Ignis sighed, leaning over him. "It'll keep. I'll wake you for dinner." Noct smiled sleepily, but did not stir, as Ignis brushed a kiss over his cheekbone, polished off his king's cup as well as his own, and went to check on the stew.

~o~


	7. Uncovered

If there was one thing that was dashedly inconvenient about sleeping in a different place every night, Ignis thought, it was never being quite sure as to the location of the loo when you needed it. And, if there was another, related annoyance about sharing a single room and a single toilet with three other people, it was that--without fail--everybody had to go to that bathroom at the exact same time in the middle of the night. 

Ignis was the first one up, this time. He had been putting it off a while, to be honest. But after a few minutes tossing and turning he had to admit that the pressure in his bladder wasn't just going to go away on its own. Resigned, he got up and crept to the bathroom, hoping all the while that he could recover his spot in the bed when he was done. It had been perfect, with the blanket on him and the breeze blowing in the window, and Gladio asleep against his back. Ignis attended to his business, washed up, shuddered at the state of his reflection, opened the bathroom door, and--of course--found Gladio waiting on the other side. 

"Next," Gladio said, shouldering past him. 

In the other bed, Noct's pile of blankets stirred fretfully. "Then me." 

"Just don't take too long," Prompto yawned next to him. "I've been trying to find a bathroom in like, my last six dreams." 

"Lord, I didn't know there was a bloody queue," Ignis said, groping past furniture in the semi-darkness to find the bed again, and crawling into it. The coverlet was too lightweight for Ignis' taste (what he wouldn't give for a giant goosedown duvet), and it smelled faintly of stale smoke and industrial detergent, but Ignis made the best of it. He closed his eyes and tried to get comfortable, tried to ignore the various flushings and creakings and light flickerings and door-thumpings and ow-dammit-that-was-my-toe-ings. It took much too long, and felt twice as long as it actually was. Noct and Prompto shared a stifled laugh about something. Someone tripped on a duffel bag strap. But finally, it was done. The other side of the bed tipped down behind Ignis, the toilet got to finish running, and a peaceful quiet settled on the hotel room. Ignis Scientia sighed a tiny sigh. Maybe now he could go back to sleep. 

Maybe, except that Gladio was feeling frisky. 

_Oh, for for the love of Ramuh_ , Ignis thought, annoyed. Gladio should know he was asking for a good slap, getting handsy at this time of night, after the day they'd had. Ignis made a sleepy, querulous noise in his throat, which on the outside sounded completely benign but Gladio would know that it meant a full retreat was in order. At least, it was if he wanted to keep his fingers. 

But the hand sliding down Ignis' ribs did not withdraw. In fact it only grew bolder, easing under the soft fabric of Ignis' shorts and stroking a slow, curious line over his hipbone. 

Ignis inhaled in exasperation--

_What on Eos does he think he's doing with this nonsense, it's one-thirty in the morning, if he wants to get off he'd damn well better not waste my--_

\--And let it out in realization, as someone who was certainly not Gladio pressed an open-mouthed kiss between his shoulder blades. 

_Noct._

Ignis wasn't sure what exactly had given it away. Some combination of things, no doubt--the scent of his hair or the pitch of his breathing or the shape of his fingers--that had coalesced into a truth so sudden, so obvious and so bitter that Ignis wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry about it. In the confusion of everyone getting up and finding beds again in the dark, in the constant uncertainty of motel topography and was this Duscae or Cleigne or hell itself, who knew anymore, Noct had gotten back in the wrong bed. And he thought Ignis was Prompto. 

_Do you do this to him in the dark?_ Ignis thought, and then tore the question out of his mind, flung it away as far as it would go. No good would come of examining it, or of brooding on the casual closeness that Noct and Prompto shared. There was nothing for Ignis to do but say something, to stop this before it went too far. 

Some tiny voice inside Ignis saw fit to remind him that it had gone too far long ago. And who was he trying to fool? Ignis wanted it, wanted him. The moment he knew whose hands were on him, his own body betrayed him with its yearning, its need. It would be dishonest to pretend otherwise; it would be dishonorable to let Noct carry on without saying anything. But Ignis' voice was frozen solid as Noct's hands roamed freely on his skin under the covers. 

_Surely he knows I'm not Prompto. Surely he knows he got the wrong bed. He can't be so befuddled as all that?_

But then Noct's fingers, stealthily and with full intent, slid up inside the vent of Ignis' shorts, and Ignis understood at last. Noct knew full well what he was doing, and to whom. He was well aware that he was petting Ignis' heavy cock inside his clothes, stroking it until it was flushed and hard under his hand, until Ignis made a strained sound of desperation behind his teeth. Noct had the nerve to laugh, gently, at his long-suffering advisor, as he pushed the waistband of Ignis' underpants down around his thighs to make things easier. His voice was a whisper, but wide-awake. 

"How long were you planning to act like you were asleep?"

"Oh," Ignis said, in the airiest tone he could manage, as Noct's fingers wrapped around him and did nothing to quench the heat they enclosed, "no more than three or four years or so."

"Don't you think we've waited long enough?" Noct kissed the curve of his shoulder, and Ignis' breath caught in his throat. 

"I don't know," he answered, and his voice was so unsure that for a moment he didn't even sound like himself. "Have we?"

"You want this, right?" Noct's voice was as soft and dark as his hair, cool on the back of Ignis' neck. "I mean. Pretty obviously."

"Yes, all right," Ignis admitted, as exasperated as a man can be in the middle of a handjob. He pushed his face into his elbow, and for a moment might as well have been talking to himself. "I've been downright shameless on this trip, honestly."

He should have known this would happen. Ever since that foolishness at Galdin Quay--or the night Ignis caught Noct watching him with Gladio, or--well. The whole bloody trip, actually. It was one thing to lust after your prince in a city the size of Insomnia, but in a convertible, in a cramped motel room, in a tent--impossible. Ignis' longing could no longer be contained. He hadn't been able to resist Gladio, and only Noct's inexperience had kept him at arm's length so far. Ignis had sworn long ago that if--gods help him--this moment ever came, he would not be Noct's first. So much of Noct's life was groomed, scheduled. So many things Ignis had to do for him. _Let him choose something for himself, for once_ , Ignis thought, and Noct had. He'd chosen Prompto on a motel roof, and that was fine and good. Ignis was content with that, and honestly happy for both of them. Let Noct have what he wanted, as long as he could, before the confines of rank and destiny closed all around him. 

But Noct was a king, and kings, by nature, are greedy. And this one had just shifted his hips and made it quite clear what he wanted. 

_Too much_ , Ignis thought, remembering a song that had been playing when they left Insomnia, _is never enough_. 

"Me, too," Noct admitted. "Though I guess you finally got the hint." 

Ignis made a noise of disbelief. "You--you mean--how long have you--" 

Noct made a thoughtful little hum in his throat. "Long enough that I don't remember when it started? Maybe it's been always. I don't know." 

"You could have _said_ something." 

Noct let him go, but it was only to draw his hand up over Ignis' belly, to let it come to rest against his heart. He put his cheek against the back of Ignis' neck, close enough for Ignis to feel the motion of his eyelashes. "No. I couldn't." 

Ignis took a deep breath. The consuming ache of his cock had not eased, but at least, without Noct touching him, he could think a little more clearly. "You know you can tell me anything, Noct. Why not this?" 

"If I had said something, you would have slept with me because you knew I wanted it," Noct said, with surprising evenness, and it gave away how long he'd thought about the matter, how much consideration he'd given it. "I didn't want that. I wanted you to want me because--" Ignis felt Noct make a face as his assurance wavered. "Because... you wanted me. For yourself. Not because I'm your prince or it was your duty." 

"The way Prompto wants you, you mean?" Ignis said, and immediately cursed himself for being a petty, jealous fool. Noct would be right to get up in disgust and leave. 

But then Noct said, as if Ignis should have known it already, "The way I want all of you." 

And with that, all the wrinkles in the surface were pulled smooth, and what Ignis had thought was a landscape of unsurmountable mountains and shadowy valleys was transformed into one bright, open plain of mutual affection: a level, equal place with everything spoken and nothing forbidden. It made such a breathtaking amount of sense. Of course they were all Noct's, and he was theirs, and they were each others'. Of course they always had been, and would be. Ignis felt tears stinging behind his closed eyes, and realized that he was helplessly, perfectly happy in that instant. A man could go his whole life in search of that feeling, that acceptance, and never find it. Or he could find it, and die for it gladly. Ignis brought his king's hand to his mouth and kissed the ends of his fingers, and for a while they were content to lie like that, curled around each other in silent understanding. 

But not for long. Noct had other plans for the night, and he freed both his hands in order to put them into action. "Did you think about doing this with me?" he asked, while his fingers outlined the shapes of Ignis' thighs, his buttock. Ignis didn't need to respond; his body answered the question for him, and the proof was in his king's eager hands. Noct's voice slid down a meaningful octave. "Looks like you did. How did it go? Were you fucking me? Or asking me to--"

"Yes," Ignis gasped, in confession to both, to all of it. There was no sin he had not contemplated and no way to deny it, not while he was throbbing in Noct's hand, wantonly pressing back into the curve of his body to feel Noct's cock, as hard and hot as his own, nestled like a promise against his ass. 

Too many fantasies for Ignis to recite, to count. Too many memories. But one stood out sharply in his mind, as Noct pushed his face into the soft hair at Ignis' nape, and kissed the warm place behind his earlobe.

Two years ago, in Insomnia. Noct had begun dutifully attending his father’s councils once a month, to observe. It had run late that night, and Noctis had promised to meet Prompto at the movie theater half an hour earlier. The Prince of Lucis changed out of his ceremonial robes in the backseat of the car while Ignis drove across town, Insomnia’s streetlights flashing through the moon roof and summoning up terrible temptations in the car’s rear-view. Straining pale thighs. Deft hands on a Prince’s gold buckles, tapping a message on his phone. The ghost of the old scar along his back. One perfect nipple, brown as caramel, taut from being rubbed by his haste to get out of his clothes. Ignis wanted it in his mouth. 

Instead he bit his lip and focused on the road as Noct pulled on jeans and a sweater; instead he nodded dutifully as he let Noct off at the curb, now looking like any young man of the capital. Told him to have a good time. Told him to say hello to Prompto for him. Told him to text when he got home. Noct brushed it all off with a wave and a smile. 

Ignis drove home to his own small apartment, parked the car, and gathered Noct’s scattered royal finery up out of the back seat. In the elevator, he made a mental note to take it to the cleaners tomorrow. The crumpled fabric in his arms (it was still warm, gods be merciful) filled his lungs with the scent of the Citadel’s council chamber: incense and sealing wax, old onyx, leather-lined chairs. But then it also smelled like Noct’s aftershave and his skin and it was familiar and holy and terrible and Ignis was burning with it, hand shaking as he tried to open his front door. He didn’t bother to turn on a light, only buried his face in the soft velvet of Noct’s mantle as he got off, alone in his narrow bed with his Prince’s name on his lips. 

Oh, he had imagined. But this was not his imagination. This was Noct--real and human and no holy king, no unattainable dream--kissing Ignis' shoulders and spooning up behind him. 

Ignis wasn't sure where his shorts had gone; it was possible they were lost in the bed or even dangling comically around one ankle, Noct had seen them off a while ago. And now he slid one hand between Ignis' thighs and lifted him, and Ignis opened for him like a book. 

"Tell me how you want me to do it," Noct said, and pushed his thumb against the knot of silk that was Ignis' asshole. "Like this?"

Ignis laughed soundlessly into his pillow. "You're the king, Noct." 

Noct dragged the wet, velvety head of his cock over Ignis' opening, and his voice was a hungry growl. "In that case, the king wants to fuck you."

Ignis shuddered, tried to stifle his moan in the pillow. "You'll have to be quiet not to wake the other two," he warned him, folding his hand around his king's hand. 

Noct chuckled against Ignis' shoulder. "Why? They're in on it. This whole thing was a setup, Specs. Surprised my _advisor_ didn't know that."

Ignis tsked. So that's how it was, was it? The royal strategist, out-strategized. "Well well," he said dryly, in less of a whisper than before, "Three of your brains are finally a match for _one_ of mine. I suppose I needn't rush to surrender my commission, then."

Noct pushed against him, but it was only enough to be a sweet pressure against Ignis' asshole, a promise. "Get that lube out of your drawer," he said, "and then we'll talk about what you're surrendering." 

"Oh?" Ignis raised an eyebrow that Noct couldn't see. "So you think you know what you're doing, do you? Already an expert? Been a couple of weeks now, what?"

Noct was momentarily flummoxed by Ignis' shift. "I thought--isn't that how you--I thought Gladio--"

"Gladio," Ignis said, in a purr, "fucks me because he's earned it. While you, my dear boy and beloved king--" Ignis ran a hand down Noct's thigh, letting it linger possessively behind his knee, "can't even get your arse out of bed in the morning without me there to threaten you first." 

"Hey, that isn't--" Noct was cut off as Ignis hooked a foot around his ankle and then rolled them both over in the bed, ending with Noct on his back and Ignis astride him. 

Noct was totally startled. Caught wrong-footed and bewildered, having done his best to seduce someone without any experience to back it up. He looked confused and a little bit annoyed and a good deal uncertain, and--there was no other word for it--absolutely adorable. Ignis wanted to kiss him. He didn't. Not yet. For one thing, there was no doubt that Noct's body very much appreciated the change in tone: that proof was firm and hot between them. 

Instead Ignis bent down and at long last got his mouth around that pretty brown nipple, felt it go from soft and smooth to a hard little bead against his stroking tongue. He could feel Noct arch and shudder underneath him, could feel Noct's heartbeat under his lips. He closed his teeth on it and gave it a gentle tug, and Noct made a raw moan of pleasure that was nothing short of exquisite in its honesty. 

_Ah, Noct. The things I could teach you._

Noct said his name in a faint whisper, and it was a surrender unsuitable for a king. But it suited Noct, and it suited Ignis right down to the ground. He leaned over to the bedside table and found what he needed there. 

"Perhaps I'll tell you about my fantasies," Ignis said, leaning over Noct, the pretty curve of Noct's cock in one hand, his other hand attending to his own concerns. "Let's start with an easy one, shall we?"

"Ign--" Noct began, but broke it off with a gasp as Ignis slipped a condom on Noct with a practiced gesture, braced both his hands on the headboard, and then mounted himself on his king in one smooth push. 

"Lesson one," Ignis said, his usual instructional tone only a little breathless as he ground down into Noct's lap, thoroughly enjoying the sweet, unfamiliar shape of him. Not so generous a serving as Gladio. Unspeakably delicious, all the same. Ignis' fingers left shining streaks of lube down Noct's chest as he caressed him. "Dominant and submissive have absolutely nothing to do with whose cock's going where, so get that thought out of your mind right now." 

"Got it," Noct gasped, his hands on Ignis' hips, his own attempting to thrust upwards, but completely at the mercy of Ignis' control. 

"Do you?" Ignis changed his balance and Noct was utterly his: enclosed and protected, safe and hidden as any holy sword in its sheath, and then he began to move. Ignis rode him hard in a relentless cadence until Noct could not help but understand, and he surrendered to that understanding willingly. Noct had always felt secure in Ignis' care. This was no different. It was not submitting, it was not commanding, it was not a king and his subject. It was a perfect and equal trust. 

Ignis felt the moment when it arrived, when Noct at last put everything in Ignis' hands, including his heart. Noct trusted him in this as he always had in everything else. It was in Noct's eyes when he looked up at him, in the motion of his body--no longer straining against Ignis, but with him. Noct understood. There was nothing to claim, to force, to take. Only everything to give to each other. A vast generosity that could quench even a king's greed. 

_This is how it is, with me and Gladio. This is how it is with you and Prompto. And this is how it must be between all of us, always, together or apart, if it is to endure._

And Noct, as if he had heard Ignis' thoughts inside his own mind like the voice of an Astral, said, "Yes."

Then, at last, Ignis kissed him. Lay down over him and covered Noct's mouth with his own, drank the sounds of pleasure he made as the bed creaked under their desperate motion. This first, perfect time would not last, Ignis knew that. His own control was too far gone, and Noct too untried. And that was fine. Nothing so precious was meant to be kept. So Ignis let it happen and did not hold it back for either of them, and he gave Noct his tongue as they came together, a thousand times sweeter than any daydream either of them had ever had. 

The kiss did not end even when everything else was done, when they lay tangled up against each other with Ignis' hands sunk deep into Noct's dark hair, kissing him for every time he'd had to bite his lip and turn away. 

"I don't think this was in my formal job description," Ignis murmured into Noct's mouth, stroking his toes over Noct's ankle. 

Noct's fingers were compelled by the warm, responsive surface of Ignis' skin, and drunk on the freedom to roam over it unimpeded. He caught and held the tiny skull on Ignis' necklace, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger. "Neither was cutting my hair, mending my clothes, holding me up over the toilet when I got food poisoning and was too weak to sit up to puke, or doing five years of pastry research for me, but you did those things, too." 

" _Other duties as assigned_ ," Ignis drawled, and Noct tried to stifle his laughter in the blanket. 

There was a rustle of motion from the other bed. "Excuse me," Gladio said, lifting his head and growling as though it would counteract his smile. "Some people are trying to sleep over here?" 

"Yeah," Prompto piped up. "Keep it down, you crazy kids." 

Ignis cleared his throat. "Oh, I beg your _pardon_. It certainly didn't look like _trying to sleep_ a few minutes ago, unless Prompto normally sleeps with his legs hooked over your shoulders, Gladio." 

Gladio propped himself up on one elbow, his other arm still draped around Prompto's middle. " _Sorr-ee_ ," he said, fluttering a hand at the other bed. "We were going to invite you, but you seemed kind of _busy_." 

"I understand though that resolving years of unspoken sexual tension requires a lot of concentration," Prompto added, and moved Gladio's arm a little lower. 

"Oh," Ignis said, and his teeth showed in the dim hotel light, "I'll resolve something sexual for you, if you don't watch it." 

"I'd watch it," Noct put in. "Will there be a planned performance, or is it improv night?" 

"Gonna have to be planned," Gladio said, doing something under the blanket that made Prompto clutch his pillow and make a sweet little mewling sound. "Because if I know Iggy--and I do, in the Cosmological sense--" 

" _Gladiolus._ " 

"...He probably can't feel anything below his knees right now." 

They stared at each other across the gulf between the beds, until Ignis looked away. 

"Fine." 

Noct had been watching Prompto's face, enjoying the glazed look of pleasure in his eyes and trying to determine what, exactly, Gladio was doing to him, when he realized what was wrong with the situation. "These beds are too far apart," he announced. 

"Hnuh," Gladio said, looking around. "We can fix that." He slid out of the bed (giving Prompto a minute to catch his breath), put his hands on the bedframe, and with one easy shove scooted the two beds together until Prompto was practically in Noct's armpit. 

"Ah!" Prompto said, smiling up at his suddenly-close king. "Fancy meeting you here, your highness. Come here often?" 

"As often as I can," Noct said, with a wink, and kissed him. 

"I suppose it's too much to ask for a little sleep now?" Ignis said, settling down against Noct's shoulders as Gladio climbed in behind Prompto. "Seeing as how it's going to be dawn in a few hours." 

Noct made a pained noise. "Can't I like, declare it nighttime until about eleven?" 

"Not unless your jurisdiction extends to space and time, which it does not." Ignis put an arm around Noct, but ruffled Prompto's hair with his outstretched fingers. "Your sexual resolution will have to wait, Prompto." 

"He's fine." Gladio sounded smug. "I resolved him about three or four times already. He's a quick trigger." 

"Gladioooo!" Prompto buried his blush in Noct's shoulder. "Don't tell them that!" 

"Like we don't know already," Ignis breathed, to the ceiling. 

"Actually, no, Gladio," Noct said, in what they all knew was his comedy-king voice, the most often used when he was threatening to execute one of them or laying claim to the last of the fries. "I'm going to need a full report on that in the morning." 

"Gotcha," Gladio yawned, and felt around in the blankets until he found Ignis' hand and held it, both of them encircling Noct and Prompto in their embrace. "Yer highness. Now go the fuck to sleep." 

"Nnngh," Noct said, nearly there already. 

"Sweet dreams, all of you," Ignis said, smiling into Noct's hair. It smelled like safety, like the scent of the Citadel. Familiar, like the shape of Gladio's hand in his. Comfortable, like the motion of Prompto squirming as he settled down. Ignis felt a swell of happiness again as he thought of them, all so beloved, all in each others' arms as they let sleep come. 

So it was not Insomnia, then. But it was like home. 

Five minutes passed before Prompto cleared his throat, hesitantly. 

"I uh... think I have to pee? Um. How do I get out?" 

Noct's voice came from under Prompto's arm. "...Me too." 

Gladio's grunt was likewise affirmative.

Ignis groaned out loud. "I wonder if the Empire is hiring." 

~o~


	8. Catechism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gladio, as the fire dies. (GladioXNoct)

Gladio was, by habit, the last one to go to bed. Noct had retreated into the tent an hour ago, with Prompto to keep him warm. Ignis had called it a night when his magazine slid off his lap into a papery splash on the ground, waking him with a start when he hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep. The fire had died down to embers, their faint light faded enough to give the runes of the haven an eerie, purple cast, but Gladio was still awake.

Ignis ruled the morning, without question. Always up with the sun and often before it, Ignis usually was on his second coffee and had the breakfast porridge bubbling away before any of the others had even begun to stir. But the time after dinner until the fire died was almost always Gladio's alone. It was a bit of privacy he had learned to look forward to, and to cherish, and he missed it on nights they spent in campers and motels. Sometimes he would read, sometimes he would look up at the stars, but mostly he spent the time alone in his thoughts, watching the fire consume itself into nothing.

He'd grieved his father there, when there was nowhere else he could do it. There he had worried about his sister, he'd nursed his own bruised pride, he'd brooded on their own uncertain fate. Even in his meditation he was still his King's Shield, still watchful of the things that prowled beyond the haven. But when he was alone, the fire had no judgement to pass on his face, his tears, his promises. His prayers. And when the morning came, he left them there in the ashes. 

Morning was still far off. 

Gladio pulled his necklace off, and rolled each tiny skull bead between his fingers.

 _One for Lucian kings of old_  
_One for final king foretold_  
_One for prophet, one for queen_  
_One for all the years between_  
_One for ice and one for fire_  
_One for earth and tempest's ire_  
_One for serpent of the seas_  
_And one who rules infinities_  
_One for shield and one for spear_  
_One for fallen comrades dear_  
_One for sovereign, one for glaive_  
_One for the day I take my grave._

Gladio heard the prayer in his mother's voice, as he always did. He remembered sitting in her lap (and later, when her belly had grown too large, beside her) and watching her sturdy, capable hands folding his own chubby childish fingers around each bead in her necklace. It had been a wedding gift from Clarus. Theirs had been an arranged match, as all Amicitia marriages were, but Clarus had loved her from the hour they met. She outranked him, her blood of House Leonis and a distant branch of house Caelum, though it was dilute enough that it did not carry the addition of _Lucis_. That was an honor only for kings.

All these things Gladio would only learn over her casket. To him, she had been only the most perfect mother imaginable, ferocious as a coeurl and as beautiful. Iris, who she would hold only for an hour, had her eyes. 

"Say it back to me, Gladiolus," his mother told him, in his memory. "You'll have to teach your little sister to say her prayers."

He did not know enough to ask her why that was. He did not know, as she did, that no king's magic or oracle's touch could cure her, and the doctors had all said she would not survive a second labor. She knew the span of her time was already short. She chose to give it all to her daughter rather than fade away over a few extra, pain-filled years. At her funeral, Clarus--with his hair shorn close in mourning, as he would wear it thereafter--had only seven words to say.

 _She was a shield worthy of kings_.

House Amicitia only by marriage, and yet she understood its burden as much as any of its blood. A life given for another life. A destiny of selflessness, of sacrifice. Gladio closed his eyes. One tear fell and vanished instantly on the hot stones ringing the fire. He thought of what his father had said of his wife in later years, when Iris had been old enough to ask about her mother, and made it a postscript to his prayer. _Astrals grant I live to be as generous in my own hour of death, as she was in hers._

"You still awake?" 

Gladio had heard the tent flap open, but had paid it no mind. Most of the time it was usually someone practically sleep-walking to the cliff ledge for a piss, and conversation was neither sought nor offered. Noct talking to him directly (in a voice that was dead-tired but also miserably wide-awake), meant something else was up. 

"I am," he said, rubbing his open hand over his face before putting his necklace back on (as though it meant nothing, as though it was not a nightly ritual), "but why the hell are you?" 

"Couldn't sleep," Noct said. Which meant, of course, that he could sleep, or had been sleeping, but something had found him there and wouldn't let him go back. 

Gladio looked at his king, in his rumpled t-shirt and bare feet and dark-ringed eyes, hugging himself against the nighttime chill of the forest. And even though the fire was nearly gone, Gladio pulled another log from the pile and threw it on the coals. "It's cold out here. Come have a seat. Want some coffee?" 

Noct shook his head, but he came over to the fire and sat down on the warm rock next to Gladio, toes curling towards the wave of heat rolling off the coals. The fire had rallied around the new log and its renewed glow washed over both of them before Gladio said anything else. 

"Bad dreams, huh?" 

"Yeah." 

"Wanna talk about it?" 

"Not really." 

Gladio made a noise of understanding. Noct would talk about it, or he wouldn't. It wasn't Gladio's place to push, not in these kinds of matters. It wasn't the same as getting Noct through that last combat drill or making sure he was working on his attack follow-through. In this case, his duty was just to be there. To be there between his King and danger, to be there if Noct wanted to talk, to be there if he just wanted to lean over and rest his head against Gladio's shoulder without saying anything. As he had just done. And Gladio shifted his weight to account for his king, looped an arm loosely around his shoulders, and rested a hand in his hair. 

_A shield is not just to serve in battle,_ Clarus had said, at one of the post-dinner lectures where he would serve up whatever wisdom he felt his children needed that day, while Jared whisked away plates. _A shield can carry a wounded ally safely from battle. It can tell a history by the arms emblazoned on its surface. And more than once one has been used as a frying pan, a water-bucket, or a signal mirror--or just a mirror for a shave. It is a thing that can be versatile in the extreme, provided it does not grow too proud for humble tasks._

Iris was mashing her remaining potatoes into a level landscape with the back of her spoon. _Can you go sledding down a hill in one?_

Clarus laughed, and said, as a man with first-hand knowledge of these things, _Yes, you can._ And then he called for Jared to bring out dessert. 

"I'm alone," Noct said, and Gladio had a moment of confusion before he realized Noct was talking about his dream. "I'm alone in the throne room, and it's dark. Everything's in ruins. Everything hurts." He pressed the heel of his hand to his breastbone, his face furrowed in remembered pain. "Someone's... laughing. They won't stop and there's a blue light and I--" Noct stopped talking abruptly and pushed his face hard against Gladio's shoulder. 

"Just a dream," Gladio said, raking his hand through Noct's messy hair, as he would if he was soothing Iris out of a nightmare. "Just a bad dream, kiddo. Don't give it any more thought." 

Neither of them believed him, Gladio knew. But Noct reached out and closed his fist in the fabric of Gladio's singlet, holding on to him as though afraid of being torn away in a flood. "I'm so _tired_ ," he confessed. 

Gladio was not a shield too proud for humble tasks. And the one asked of him now was far more of a pleasure than a duty. He'd never asked his father if Clarus had given this kind of shelter to his king (and honestly he would rather not think about it) but to Gladio it was as obvious a service as defending Noct from enemy arrows, as staying behind to secure his escape. It was something Noctis knew every bit as much, which is why he made no protest as Gladio put down the stick he had been using to poke the fire, and with one graceful motion pulled Noct into his lap, lifted his chin in one hand, and kissed him.

"Don't be gentle," Noct said, when he could speak again, his lips touched with the palest ghost of his rare smile. 

Gladio's eyebrows spoke volumes. "Am I ever?"

Noct rolled his eyes even as he leaned back in Gladio's arms, giving Gladio more room for the long, slow kiss down his neck. "You _always_ are," he said, and broke off with a groan as Gladio's mouth found the soft place just under Noct's jaw, and sucked it hard enough to bring a blossom of a mark to the surface. 

"Then this time I won't be."

"Hmph." Noct had both hands in the weight of Gladio's hair, and his throat worked even as he tried to keep his tone airy. "Promises, promises."

"Make light of the oath of a King's Shield, will you?" Gladio's chuckle was dark, and it was Noct's only warning before he rolled his king over onto the ground, hooked his fingers in the waistband of Noct's sleeping pants, and yanked them down to his knees. Noct's noise of alarm was stifled by Gladio's kiss, and it dissolved into a rough moan as Gladio's tongue filled his mouth. Shield's oath, indeed. This was one promise Gladio would always enjoy keeping. "Keep it down," he murmured against Noct's parted lips, "or you'll have Iggy and Prompto and four dozen Daemons for an audience."

"Less threats, more fucking," Noct panted, pushing on Gladio's shoulders for emphasis. 

"Less threats, or don't be gentle--Astrals above, make up your mind," Gladio sighed, but then sat back on his heels, cradled Noct's hips in his hands, and lifted his king's heavy, aching cock to his mouth. "Kings shouldn't be wishy-washy, you know."

"I'm not being wishy-wa--ah! ngh! _Gladio!_ "

 _Nah,_ Gladio thought, with a low growl of contentment in his throat as he took Noct in all the way in one swallow. _You're always obvious about what you want._

Noct's fist was almost painfully tight in Gladio's hair, holding Gladio's mouth where he wanted it, straining up against him for more. Left to his own devices, he'd be done in a matter of minutes. And, Gladio knew, nowhere near exhausted enough to spend the rest of the night free of nightmares. But the noise of annoyance and frustration he made when Gladio pulled away was nothing short of flattering. 

"What?" Gladio asked, smirking down at his king's flushed face, Noct's cock still nestled against his lip. "You in a hurry?"

"No," Noct said, with a smirk that was utterly uncalled for from someone in his position. "But _you_ are." 

Gladio rolled his eyes, as if fucking his king was the most boring obligation left to those sworn to serve the crown, as if his own cock wasn't straining against the seam of his trousers. "Smartass," he muttered, even as he lowered Noct onto his back and undid his own belt with a jangle of hardware. "You'll be sorry you said that."

Noct's answer was a heartfelt groan in his teeth, dragging a hand over himself as Gladio made short work of a condom wrapper and a sample packet of lube (pilfered by the fistful from the freebie bowl of the Pink Coeurl). "Gods," Noct said, breath catching as Gladio's slick fingers stretched him open, "I hope so."

"Well then," Gladio said, his eyes bright and his grin uneven as he pulled Noct down into his lap. "I'd better not disappoint my _liege_."

Noct's response was both nonverbal and exceedingly gratifying. Gladio pressed a hot, hard kiss against Noct's throat, and served his king. At length, and with all his heart. 

 

The fire had almost died by the time Gladio carried Noct--drowsy and as limp as one of Iris' moogle plushies--back into the tent. The disarray of blankets was a testament to the poor sleep Noct had had beforehand, but he sank down against Prompto's back with a faint sigh of contentment and was asleep before Gladio had finished kicking off his boots. Prompto snored on uninterrupted, but Ignis stirred with a sleepy, curious noise, and squinted at Gladio's shadowy shape against the tent wall. 

"Gladio? Is the fire out?"

Gladio paused, boot still in hand. For the first time in many nights, he had not bothered to check. "Eh," he said, in as close as his voice could get to an undertone, "...close enough."

He sensed rather than saw Ignis' raised eyebrow in response, but Ignis said nothing else, only settled back down in his blanket. Gladio, for his part, curled easily around Noct's slighter form, like a palisade around a tower, a wall around a city. 

A shield to his king.

~o~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Happy Birthday Ekala ^_^)


End file.
